Child Welfare advocate and founder of the maternity home/adoption agency that still bears her name. Distressed at the conditions and conditions of children at the Grayson County poor farm, she began a crusade to clean it up. Edna arranged to have the children moved to the Reverend I.Z.T. Morris's Children's Home and Aid Society in Fort Worth, where she joined the board of directors in 1910. In 1927, she became the Superintendent of the Texas Children Home and Aid Society. When her husband died in 1935, and with no children to look after, she dedicated herself full time to child welfare. Originally continuing the work of Rev. Morris to place abandoned children into new homes, the services eventually took a strong emphasis on unmarried mothers and their babies. Her lobbying efforts, along with others, removed the word “illegitimate” from Texas birth certificates, and granted equal inheritance rights to adopted children. As a result, the state of Texas began to issue second birth certificates to adoptees. The Children’s Home and Aid Society changed its name to the Edna Gladney Home (now the Edna Galdney Center) in 1950 after acquiring the West Texas Maternity Hospital two years after they began to operate it. In 1957, she received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws Degree from Texas Christian University. Edna continued as the director until failing health forced her into retirement in 1960. Her activities are the basis of the movie Blossoms in the Dust (1941), starring Greer Garson.
Child Welfare advocate and founder of the maternity home/adoption agency that still bears her name. Distressed at the conditions and conditions of children at the Grayson County poor farm, she began a crusade to clean it up. Edna arranged to have the children moved to the Reverend I.Z.T. Morris's Children's Home and Aid Society in Fort Worth, where she joined the board of directors in 1910. In 1927, she became the Superintendent of the Texas Children Home and Aid Society. When her husband died in 1935, and with no children to look after, she dedicated herself full time to child welfare. Originally continuing the work of Rev. Morris to place abandoned children into new homes, the services eventually took a strong emphasis on unmarried mothers and their babies. Her lobbying efforts, along with others, removed the word “illegitimate” from Texas birth certificates, and granted equal inheritance rights to adopted children. As a result, the state of Texas began to issue second birth certificates to adoptees. The Children’s Home and Aid Society changed its name to the Edna Gladney Home (now the Edna Galdney Center) in 1950 after acquiring the West Texas Maternity Hospital two years after they began to operate it. In 1957, she received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws Degree from Texas Christian University. Edna continued as the director until failing health forced her into retirement in 1960. Her activities are the basis of the movie Blossoms in the Dust (1941), starring Greer Garson.
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