Grace Martin Highley

A TRAILBLAZER IN CHILD WELFARE

1895–1985 • CATEGORY

PROFESSIONAL • RESIDING

HOT SPRINGS, SD • NOMINATED BY

CHERYL ZIMIGA South Dakota’s pioneer social worker, Grace Martin Highley, was born in 1885 on her family homestead near Hot Springs, South Dakota. For over fifty years, she advocated for others, dedicating her life to both public and private service to the people of South Dakota, especially its children.

She would begin her working career when the winter of 1929 forced Grace and her husband Charles Martin to sell their ranch and, with their four children, move into Hot Springs. She worked as editor of the Hot Springs Star at $19 a week. As the economic depression spread, government programs began to assist those struggling, and Grace took on the position of Relief Worker for the Fall River County Commissioners, where she was to decide which families should be given federal money to buy food. The first family she visited lived in a cave, had nine children, and only milk from six goats and flour. She traveled from home to home in a Model-T Ford pick-up. By 1932, she was appointed Director of the Fall River County Welfare Department. In 1937, she became Public Assistance Supervisor for 12 West River Counties. Grace had originally attended Spearfish Normal School and Nebraska Wesleyan University to study chemistry. She had no training in welfare services, but she was a skilled practitioner and had come by her training the hard way, through field work and challenging experiences.

In 1939, she was asked to come to Pierre to administer the Child Welfare Services. She declined because she felt unqualified for the work. After spending an evening with the Director, who was suffering from a terminal illness, she agreed to take the position for six months, but the Director did not live to orient Grace to her job. Grace encountered countless obstacles, untrained staff and meager funds were among those. Resources often depended on determination

and ingenuity and Grace possessed both. Upon discovering her office owed $700 in medical bills for foster children that they could not pay, she called each doctor, explained the situation, and offered to pay two or three dollars on the bill. Every doctor involved agreed to cancel his bill.

Her first staff of seven had only a six-week training program. Believing a better trained staff could give better help, she arranged professional training through national speakers, conferences, and workshops. By the mid-fifties, over 50 percent of the state’s many child welfare workers had one or more years of graduate training. For 21 years, she built a program based on the needs of children. She established uniform policies, standards, and goals so that all children might have equal protection and the same level of service which did not exist in 1939.

Twyla Boe, Grace’s replacement after retirement, stated that at national meetings and private agencies both in and outside South Dakota, “Grace was known as a Champion of Children.”

Grace believed in her staff. Morale was important to her, and she believed that it extended from the head of the department all the way down. She believed in humor. “Can you laugh with others in the agency? Can you laugh at yourself with your staff?” She was proud to be a state employee and her staff was important to her. Laughs were often shared about calls from Grace requesting a task, in a manner that couldn’t be refused- “ Since you’re already in Lemmon, could you just take a slight detour to Hot Springs to Grace was never intimidated by those who held the purse strings for her program. She met and worked with legislators, judges and Governors personally. She was not a political person because she believed she was working for children. “Keep your eye on the child” was what she always said. Fred Tully of Children’s Home Society tells of an occasion she came into conflict with politics. An applicant for adoption of a particular child was denied placement by one of Grace’s staff members who had done so with good reason. Knowing the applicant personally, the Governor called Grace in to discuss the applicant’s complaint and informed her that it was his decision, and that the child would be place in this home. She pled her case, but the Governor invoked his authority and would not listen to further arguments. Returning to her desk, she wrote a letter of resignation. In it she stated she could not administer a department and make decisions in the best interest of children if her decisions would be overturned, not on further evidence, but because of political considerations. Later that day, she was called back to the Governor’s office and told that the people of South Dakota would be proud of the caliber of employee which she represented, he would yield to her caseworker’s decision. Mr. Tully shared that Grace’s stance was always one of principle, not defiance, which increased a sense of responsibility for the important work of child welfare.

Widowed and retired, Grace married her high school sweetheart, Elmer Highley from Edgemont. She stayed busy, well into her eighties, as a mentor, unofficial advisor, and board member of several agencies. She continued to help those in need, to make a difference in the troubled lives of those she met. After visiting a man held in the Hot Springs jail, she lent support to his wife and children, arranged alcohol treatment, and found him a job before he went to court. The judge later commented, that when Grace walked into the court with the man, he knew he would agree with whatever she had put together for a plan. In 1978, Augustana College awarded Grace Martin Highley an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters for her unselfish and unbending determination to the service of others.