Woman, 94, Meets Daughter, 77, For First Time

A 94-year-old woman who gave birth to a baby in secret after being raped when she was a teenager recently met her daughter for the first time after 77 years.

The Associated Press reported that Minka Disbrow was a 16-year-old dairy maid when she was raped at a summer picnic in South Dakota in 1928. She was sent off to a Lutheran home for pregnant girls to have the baby. At 17, she gave birth and named her baby Betty Jane. The baby was adopted by an Iowa pastor who raised it as his own. The Daily Mail reported Disbrow later married a fruit salesman and had two children but never told them they have a sibling who had been giving up for adoption. But Disbrow never forgot about her daughter.

According to NY Daily News, for years Disbrow wrote letters to the Lutheran home where she had the baby, begging for news of her daughter. The agency replied on a number of occasions but after there was a change in management replies to her inquiries stopped.

The baby Disbrow named Betty Jane was raised in Iowa as Ruth Lee. While Disbrow was praying to see her daughter, Ruth also was trying to find her biological mother.

Eventually, Disbrow received a phone call from her grandson, Ruth Lee's son, asking if she wanted to be reunited with her daughter now living in Wisconsin. After phone call contacts, Ruth Lee and her son Brian Lee, flew to California and met Disbrow in her apartment.

Disbrow's daughter, 65-year-old Dianna Huhn, said she had never seen her mom so happy. Disbrow had to reveal the story of how she and three of her co-workers, all teenage milk maids, were attacked by three men while picnicking close to a lake. In-spite of the tragic story the meeting was joyful.