- Invented daytime radio soap operas followed by television.
- Received a Masters Degree from the University of Wisconsin.
- The first radio program she sold, to WGN in Chicago, was a ten-minute program "A Thought For Today".
- The third soap opera she created, this time for NBC, was her breakout hit "The Guiding Light".
- Her fourth, fifth & sixth radio soap operas were "The Road To Life", "The Right To Happiness" and "Woman In White". By the 1940s her annual salary was $300,000 per year ($4 million in 2020 dollars).
- Father William was a child of Polish immigrants. Her mother Betty was a Jewish German immigrant.
- Was a member of Phi Sigma Sigma Fraternity, Inc.
- She lived in Chicago, Illinois and commuted by telephone to New York City regarding her shows. She also dictated her writing to her secretaries and assistants.
- She adopted two children in her forties. A son, Thomas Dirk Phillips, and a daughter, Katherine Louise Phillips.
- She began her teaching career as a junior college speech and drama instructor in Fulton, Missouri in 1924. She was a teacher in Dayton, Ohio from 1924 until 1929. She was hired by WGN Radio Station in Chicago, Illinois as a writer.
- She was the youngest of ten children. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Education from the University of Illinois in Chicago, Illinois in 1923.
- Upon her death, she was interred at the Memorial Park and Crematorium in Skokie, Illinois.
- Her father owned a grocery store until his death when Irna was eight.
- Graduated from Senn High School in Chicago, Illinois.
- The second radio program she created for WGN was "Painted Dreams", it is considered the first soap opera She was initially paid $50 per week . The program premiered on 20 October 1930 and aired 6 days per week.
- In 1932 she left WGN and moved to WMAQ where she created her second soap opera "Today's Children". The show ran until 1938.
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