Adele Crockett Robertson was born in 1901 at her family's farm in Ipswich, Massachusetts. After the orchard years, she was a writer with the WPA and worked in a shipyard and in a factory. At age fifty she became a journalist and won several New England Press Awards. A beloved local figure, Adele Crockett Robertson served as Ipswich selectwoman, and her commentary on current events and politics was widely read. The Ipswich Town Hall flew its flag at half-mast on the day she died in 1979.