The following information is from:

Information About the Artists, Architects & Eras (Highland Park, IL)
http://www.highlandpark.org/historic/art_hist_web/artists/artists.htm

Mildred Waltrip was born in 1911 in Madisonville, Kentucky. She was educated in the Chicago Public Schools and studied at The Art Institute from 1926 to 1933. She traveled to Paris where she studied with Fernand Leger. She became a mural painter during the Federal Art Project and a designer and commercial artist. In addition to the Federal Art Project, she worked for Marshall Field's advertising department from 1936 to 1937 where she illustrated books on "How to Buy Intelligently". She had mural commissions at the Congress Hotel, Cook County Hospital, Chicago's Henrici's Restaurant, the Merchandise Mart, the Chicago Park Board Administration Building, the Gibson Hotel in Cincinnati, Ohio and Hatch School in Oak Park and Ravinia School in Highland Park. She became a graphic designer completing many posters for the Brookfield Zoo and other national locations. She also was an illustrator for children's books. Her hobbies include gardening and a love of outdoor life. She has a large repertoire of hill-billy songs that she learned in Kentucky while visiting her grandparents.