Edwina Hume Fallis facts for kids

Edwina Hume Fallis (November 15, 1876 – September 14, 1957) was an amazing American woman. She was a teacher, writer, poet, and even a toy designer! She wrote a special book for kids called When Denver and I Were Young (1956). This book was so popular it was printed twice! She also wrote over 100 poems. Years after she passed away, she was honored in the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1989.

Growing Up and Becoming a Teacher

East High School, Denver

Edwina Hume Fallis was born in Denver, Colorado, in 1876. She grew up in a house that is now where the Denver Public Library stands. Her grandfather, Daniel Hurd, was even the president of the Denver school board!

Edwina went to public schools in Denver. She graduated from East High School in 1895. At her graduation, she gave a speech about how "Ideas Stronger Than Armies" can change the world.

Her Journey to Education

After high school, Edwina went to the Colorado State College of Education. She also studied at the University of Denver and Columbia University. She even took advanced teaching classes in Chicago.

Her first job was helping teach kindergarten in Denver. She noticed something interesting during story time. If the group of kids was small, they paid close attention. But with a big group, it was harder to keep everyone focused.

Inventing Fun Toys for Learning

To help her students, Edwina started making toys and props. These props helped the children follow along with classic stories like "Three Billy Goats Gruff" and "Goldilocks and the Three Bears".

She saw that the kids loved using the toys to create their own stories. So, she made animal figures and tiny vehicles like wagons, cars, and trains. She created about 80 different figures that could be used for more than two dozen children's stories!

In the late 1930s, Edwina and her sister Bella opened the Fallis Toy Shop in Denver. Bella designed the toy figures. Making toys was expensive, so Edwina wrote a book called The Child and Things (1940). This book showed pictures of the toys. She sent a copy to a big education convention. A toy maker saw the book and arranged for a company in Minneapolis to make the toys. This meant Edwina and Bella would get money from each toy sold.

A Talented Writer and Poet

Edwina Fallis taught kindergarten for 42 years! During that time, she wrote textbooks and articles to help other teachers.

After she retired, she wrote stories for Child Life magazine. She also published over 100 poems, and many of them appeared in different poetry collections.

Sharing Her Childhood Memories

After a heart attack, while she was recovering, Edwina started writing her special memoir for children, When Denver and I Were Young (1956). This book is full of colorful stories about what it was like to grow up in Denver between 1876 and 1890.

She described things like horse-drawn vehicles and the old gravity streetcar. She also wrote about school life and family life, like how people used to do home canning and mend their clothes until they were too thin to fix anymore. She even wrote about meeting a famous person named Baby Doe Tabor outside a store. The book was very popular and had to be printed a second time because it sold out so quickly!

Honors and Recognition

Edwina Fallis was honored many years after she passed away.

• In 1989, she was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame.
• In 2010, she was also inducted into the East High Hall of Fame.
• In 1961, the Denver school district named the Edwina Hume Fallis Elementary School in her honor.

Personal Life

Edwina Fallis never married. She passed away in Denver at the age of 80 and was buried in the Riverside Cemetery.