Background
She was born October 14, 1919, in Baltimore, Maryland and received a degree in history from George Washington University.
She was born October 14, 1919, in Baltimore, Maryland and received a degree in history from George Washington University.
She is also the namesake of the Ronne Ice Shelf. She and Jennie Darlington, the wife of the expedition"s chief pilot, became the first women to overwinter in Antarctica. As the expedition"s recorder & historian, Ronne wrote the news releases for the North American Newspaper Alliance.
Edith Ronne returned several times to Antarctica, including a Navy-sponsored flight to the South Pole in 1971 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Roald Amundsen first reaching the South Pole, and a 1995 trip back to her former base at Stonington Island as guest lecturer on the expedition cruise ship Explorer.
She was a fellow of The Explorers Club and served as president of the Society of Woman Geographers from 1978-1981. She died on June 14, 2009, aged 89, from Alzheimer"s disease.
When the territory was determined to be mostly ice shelf, the name was changed to Edith Ronne Ice Shelf.
They spent 15 months together with 21 other members of the expedition in a small station they had set up on Stonington Island in Marguerite Bay. At her request, the United States. Board on Geographic Names removed her first name, so that the Ronne Ice Shelf would correspond to the continent"s other large ice shelf, the Ross Ice Shelf and to commemorate all three Ronne explorers including her father-in-law, Martin Rønne, a member of Amundsen"s South Pole expedition.