Helen Josephine Vandegrift graduated from Central High School, Akron OH (1914) and attended Buchtel (now Akron) University (1915-19). She taught music at home for two years and then became the society page editor for the Akron Beacon Journal in 1920. During this time she also wrote several plays and stories. In 1922, she won an amateur playwright competition entitling her to enter Harvard Workshop. Instead, she became a writer for Newspaper Enterprise Association in New York City. Among the best of her many stories was an account of a trip to Florida in which she interviewed John D Rockefeller. She returned to Akron in 1924 and became a writer for the Beacon Journal. In May 1925, she married William H. Rigby, a local book store owner. (Contemporary accounts state she was his first customer). She then wrote a syndicated column titled "Demitasse and Mrs Grundy" which included, among other things, references to her family life at 320 Fairy Street. She was also prominent in social and professional women's clubs including the Business Women's Club, Women's City Club and the Ohio Newspaper Women's Association. In July 1927, she was taken to Peoples Hospital, Akron, in a vain effort to save her life.
Helen Josephine Vandegrift graduated from Central High School, Akron OH (1914) and attended Buchtel (now Akron) University (1915-19). She taught music at home for two years and then became the society page editor for the Akron Beacon Journal in 1920. During this time she also wrote several plays and stories. In 1922, she won an amateur playwright competition entitling her to enter Harvard Workshop. Instead, she became a writer for Newspaper Enterprise Association in New York City. Among the best of her many stories was an account of a trip to Florida in which she interviewed John D Rockefeller. She returned to Akron in 1924 and became a writer for the Beacon Journal. In May 1925, she married William H. Rigby, a local book store owner. (Contemporary accounts state she was his first customer). She then wrote a syndicated column titled "Demitasse and Mrs Grundy" which included, among other things, references to her family life at 320 Fairy Street. She was also prominent in social and professional women's clubs including the Business Women's Club, Women's City Club and the Ohio Newspaper Women's Association. In July 1927, she was taken to Peoples Hospital, Akron, in a vain effort to save her life.
Gravesite Details
Headstone birth year is 1894; Indiana birth certificate states January 7, 1895.
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