SLM Daily

Not long ago, I began following the Twitter account of one Genny Spencer, consisting of the day-by-day reposting of an Illinois farm girl's concise, one- to two-line diary entries from 1937 to 1941, during the Great Depression. The 57 entries so far have ranged from the extremely mundane ("Donald Hardin was down here. Was a nice warm day") to the mysterious ("Went to Moontown") and the unintentionally amusing ("Norman shot a rabbit. He is 8 years old. First one").

Spencer's grand-nephew, social media guru David Griner, began posting the entries on New Year's Day this year, shortly after his family discovered the diary among Spencer's possessions. A January 28 blog post explained his decision to air the diary on Twitter:

In the last two months, Spencer's diary has become an international sensation, with more than 2,300 readers. I loved it immediately for its peculiar brand of escapism; unlike the satirical stylings of writers like HotAmishChick, this is unironic, bona fide Depression-era farm life.

What I didn't know, though, was that Spencer was still alive, residing in De Soto, just south of St. Louis. So I did a double-take when I saw the following note posted to the account this afternoon:

R.I.P., Genny Spencer. And thanks for the memories! —Margaret Bauer, Associate Editor