Grace+Merrill+Jewett+Austin

Grace Merrill Jewett Austin By Claire Brownstone I considered my life a mathematical chart. The line reached from one corner to another In wild zigzags across the country.

I was happily married, with three daughters And a degree from Ohio Wesleyan University. My husband accepted a position from Illinois Wesleyan And thus we moved to Bloomington. This was a great town with many opportunities. I even heard Susan B. Anthony speak on suffrage!

Our first year was full of ups and downs, As the children had measles and I had the flu. Yet a Japanese student named Yanagiwara Made the year bearable as I learned about The rich and diverse Japanese culture.

Tragedy did at last strike, however. My daughter died of goiter, and my husband passed from pneumonia. Now a single mother, I needed to enter the workforce.

Happy years were spent writing fashion columns for the Daily Bulletin, And then the Pantagraph. My favorite time was the morning, When I took the pulse of the city. As my collection of elephant trinkets reached 2,600, I moved to Dallas where I passed away peacefully with my daughter Elizabeth by my side.

 Grace Jewett Austin By Jane McMahon I was born in New Hampshire to a normal couple with no great achievements to their names. But it was when I moved to Washington DC that life truly began. I met my husband, had three daughters, and traveled all over the country. My life was a maze of places darting across a map, trying to decide where I would go next. My experience in Washington was one of splendor, of movement, of suffrage. My life in Bloomington began with disease, solitude, and destruction. However, one boy from Japan managed to change everything, He brought back happiness, intrigue, and culture back into my life. After an extended stay in Washington DC, I returned to Bloomington permanently Spending my days in church, home, and in the community. Helping young people in the church and starting groups for girls, However, family illness derailed my plans. But after my husband’s death, my life began again. I started to write professionally, attending social gatherings, participating in lavish parties; I was no longer a faculty-wife, but a faculty writer. I wrote of fashion, of society, of life. Eventually, I was promoted and given the name Dame Fashion Smiles, My column splashed across newspapers around the country. Stores would say their fabrics approved specifically by me. I became the very heart of fashion in Bloomington. In my later life, I took pleasure in the simple things, Like my collection of elephants and my daughter Elizabeth. I moved to Dallas to be closer to my children But after my death, I returned home.