(1903–1976) Edith Farnsworth, a native Chicagoan, was born into the timber and paper industry and was groomed to be extremely well-educated. She attended the University of Chicago for literature and composition, and the American Conservatory of Music for violin. In 1925, she moved to New York City where she became one of the first female directors of a major corporation. She also spent several years working on her own real estate projects in Florida and Arizona. Farnsworth retired from RCA in 1969 at the age of 65 but remained active in civic affairs until her death in 1976. She is best known for her work with disadvantaged children by founding 40 schools in 10 countries with her husband Ralph Waldo Emerson "Rex" Farnsworth. They began their mission in 1927 when they founded the Purdy School for Boys in Bronx, New York. The couple's only child, Rebecca, was born in 1929 and she took over the leadership of the mission after her parents died in a plane crash near Tucson, Arizona in December 1936. Under Rebecca's direction, the mission grew to include 140 schools with 15,000 students in 34 countries around the world. Rebecca Farnsworth died in 1992 at the age of 70. She is buried next to her father and mother at the Emerson Cemetery in St. Marys, Pennsylvania.