Grace Partridge Smith

Grace Otis Partridge Smith (April 24, 1869 – May 3, 1959) was an American folklorist and educator. She studied American regional folk cultures, especially that of "Egypt", a local nickname of Southern Illinois.

Early life and education Partridge was born in Templeton, Massachusetts, the daughter of James Otis Partridge and Arvilla Pauline Kimball Partridge. She graduated from the University of Iowa in 1891, and earned a master's degree in German and Greek in 1921, with a thesis titled "The Characteristics of the Dorfnovelle". She was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She also studied piano at the conservatory in Leipzig. and held various other positions, while her husband was a mathematics professor there. and in her later years studied the American regional stories, language, and songs, especially the distinct folklore of southern Illinois, known as "Egypt" locally and in many of her publications. In 1946, she was a founder and the first president of the Illinois Folklore Society. Midwest Folklore, and Names. "An Anecdote from Hampshire" (1938) "A Vermont Variant of 'The Frog's Courting'" (1939) "Folklore from 'Egypt'" (1941) "Speech Currents in 'Egypt'" (1942) "Wayland Female Institute (Alton, 1853-1856)" (1945) "Four Irish Ballads from 'Egypt'" (1946) "Jack-Stones Again" (1949) "Egyptian 'Lies'" (1951) "Heard in the Illinois Ozarks" (1951) "If All The World Were …" (1954) "They Call it Egypt" (1954) "More Lincoln Lore" (1954)

Personal life Partridge married mathematics professor Arthur George Smith in 1896. The Smiths had three daughters: Edith, Ilse and Edna. Ilse and Edna were twins; Edna died at age 2 in 1906. Grace Partridge Smith's husband, Arthur George Smith, died of Leukemia in 1916. Her daughter Edith married folklorist and translator Alexander Haggerty Krappe. Smith died in 1959, at the age of 90, in Anna, Illinois.