The Red Rose Girls and Henrietta Cozens

Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #011

This is a story about mutual love and respect among four women at the turn of the 20th century.  All students of art know of the Red Rose Girls - illustrators Jessie Willcox Smith and Elizabeth Shippen Green and muralist Violet Oakley.  They became masters of their craft because of a fourth woman, Henrietta Cozens, who served as their mother, wife, nurse, gardener, cook, and muse.  She is interred at Laurel Hill West.  Without her, it is unlikely the Red Rose Girls would have existed.