Edith Renfrow Smith died Friday at her home in Chicago. She was 111.
In addition to a notably long life — she was one of a very small number of “supercentenarians,” or people who live to at least 110 — she bore witness to major events and came into personal contact with historical figures. She was a pioneering Black woman with an unassuming personality.
Renfrow Smith’s daughter, Alice Smith, confirmed her death to NPR.
Lifting a heavy burden
At the time of Edith Renfrow’s birth, Poweshiek County, Iowa, had 20,000 residents. Just 55 of them were Black. Her grandfather, George Craig, had made his way there after escaping enslavement with the aid of John Brown, and was working as a barber in the town of Grinnell. Her own parents, Lee and Eva Renfrow, worked as a cook and a laundress. It was only a few decades after Plessy v. Ferguson established “separate but equal,” and yet despite it all the Renfrows made sure all six of their children attended college…