From the Chicago Tribune:

When her daughter was born with Down syndrome in 1942, doctors told Irene C. Henry to institutionalize her because she was hopelessly handicapped and probably wouldn’t live more than a few years.

Mrs. Henry disregarded their advice, and instead took her daughter home and helped to start a school for children with intellectual disabilities.

Putting mentally handicapped children in an institution, rather than having them grow up at home, was a common practice when Mrs. Henry gave birth to her daughter, Judith, but she was having none of it, her son Albert said.

“She’s my daughter, and I’ll take care of her,” she told the doctor, according to her son.

Mrs. Henry died in Chicago on Dec. 30 of natural causes at the age of 91. Daughter Judith Martin lived with her parents until 1991, when she died at age 50. Mrs. Henry’s husband died the same year.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 at 12:41 pm and is filed under Down syndrome, advocacy, history, institutionalization, obits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post