Chicago SuperAger Edith Renfrow Smith turns 111
Edith Renfrow Smith has spent over a century defying expectations. Widely recognized as the first Black woman to graduate from Grinnell College and the oldest participant in the SuperAging Research Initiative at the University of Chicago, she marked her 111th birthday in July 2025 with the same energy and wit that have inspired generations.
“My mother is an example of Black resilience simply because she is still around, and because she didn’t let anything get her down — she kept on going,” said Alice Smith, Edith’s daughter.
‘The word “Can’t” isn’t in my vocabulary’
Born in 1914 in Grinnell, Iowa, Smith gladly educates anyone who will listen about what the world was like when she was growing up, from recounting the first time she ever used a telephone to explaining how her family kept food from spoiling without a refrigerator.
“It’s amazing to think about how much history she has lived through,” said Phyllis Timpo, MS, Director of Community Engagement at the University of Chicago’s Healthy Aging & Alzheimer’s Research Care (HAARC) Center.
Although it was difficult growing up in a town where only a handful of Black families lived, she was taught to take pride in herself and never back down from a challenge. That mindset carried her through to an extraordinary milestone in 1937: graduating from Grinnell College as the school’s first Black alumna.
“Don’t let anybody tell you they’re better than you,” Smith said, echoing the title of a children’s book that was written about her life. “They don’t know! They’re not in charge of the world.”
A lasting impact on Chicago
After college, Smith moved to Chicago and built her life there. Early on, she worked at UChicago for more than 15 years. According to her daughter, she primarily did secretarial work for various professors, but at one point she also contributed to a project studying red lining and housing discrimination in Chicago — a core issue of racial inequity that has shaped the city to this day.
Later, Smith became a teacher in Chicago public schools, where she spent over two decades guiding and encouraging young students. Even to this day, Timpo said, “You can tell she’s a teacher because she’s always teaching and dropping gems.”
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, just a day before her 111th birthday, Smith taught someone a very important lesson indeed: how to bake a pie.
Over her lifetime, Smith was also recognized for her dedication to serving others in the city of Chicago. She volunteered at the Art Institute of Chicago and Goodwill until she was in her 90s, and also did community work with multiple churches and cooked meals for homeless people.
“You’ve got to do something; that’s why the Lord sent you here,” Smith said.
Trailblazing as a SuperAger
In recent years, Smith has joined a new chapter of her lifelong commitment to learning and service: contributing to SuperAging research at UChicago’s HAARC Center. There, scientists led by Emily Rogalski, PhD, the Rosalind Franklin Professor of Neurology at UChicago, study people over 80 whose memory and cognitive abilities remain unusually strong.
“She volunteered to be in the study, and she will go on to encourage me to do the same,” said Smith’s daughter. “She felt that more African-Americans needed to be in studies like this.”
Someday, Rogalski and her fellow researchers will be gifted with the privilege of examining Smith’s brain — which she has directed to be donated upon her death — to gain crucial insights into what helps brains stay healthy into advanced age. But that day is not here yet! Smith is still living a vibrant life, enjoying cooking, reading, friendship and passing wisdom on to future generations.
“We SuperAgers aren’t keeling over,” Smith said. “We’re living, and we’re living each day to the highest and the best.”