Selma B. Waterman and Edna Blade

Selma Blade Waterman lived with her husband, Henry Waterman, Geneseo native and attorney with the firm that is now White and Jones, in Geneseo for many years. She returned to her hometown of Milwaukee, Wis., in the 1970s after the death of her husband to reside with her sister, Edna Blade.

Though Selma came to Geneseo from Milwaukee, her family had long-since had ties to the Quad-City area. Her father, Max Blade, loaned money to newspaper publisher E.P. Adler, for the purchase of the Davenport Democrat, a predecessor to the Quad-City Times.

To people that knew her, Selma was "a wonderful lady." She was "a very, very smart woman." She and Henry contributed anonymously to several Geneseo-area organizations, and Selma was one of the first to sit on the Board of Directors for what is now Hammond-Henry Hospital in Geneseo, serving from 1950-1958.