Marianne Krueger Michael was born in Guthrie County, Richland Township, Iowa in 1917. When Krueger was three, her father died, leaving her mother to raise Krueger and her two brothers. Upon graduating from Bagley High School in 1934, Krueger attended McPherson College in McPherson, Kansas, where she earned a B.A. in economics. It was during college that Krueger met her future husband, Herbert Michael, whom she married in 1944.
For the next four years, Marianne Michael taught high school economics in Minneola, Kansas and Stuart, Iowa. Michael and her husband then spent a year at Bethany Theological Seminary. At the conclusion of their training, the Michaels became missionaries in Garkida, Nigeria. From 1948 to 1961, the Michaels carried out missionary work for the Church of the Brethren, including the organization of the Garkida Girls' Life Brigade and the establishment of an adult literacy program for women. Michael published extensively in the church newsletter Gospel Messenger about her missionary work.
The Michaels returned to the United States in 1961 and settled in Iowa City, Iowa, where Michael completed an M.A. in Social Work in 1963. Michael then accepted a position within the University Hospital system, working in Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, and Neonatal Intensive Care. In 1978, Michael became an adjunct faculty member of the University of Iowa School of Social Work. Her professional work includes a number of scholarly publications focusing on issues related to child abuse.
Michael remains active in regional church activities, serving on the district administrative board of the Church of the Brethren. She also has published three separate genealogies documenting both the Krueger and Michael family lines. The Michaels have four children--Jan, Rosemary, Peter and Elizabeth.
The Marianne Michael papers date from 1897 to 2005 and measure 3.13 linear feet. The papers are arranged in nine series: Photographs; Biographical; Professional; Writings; Correspondence; Garkida, Nigeria; Church of the Brethren Conferences; Elizabeth Michael; and Genealogy.
The Photographs series consists primarily of black and white photographs taken during the Michaels' missionary work in Garkida.
The Biographical series includes diaries, various clippings and certificates earned by Marianne Michael, dating from 1928-2003.
The Professional series includes documents related to Michael's job as a social worker at the University of Iowa. These encompass her M.A. thesis, entitled "Factors Related to the Use of the Food Commodity Program by ADC Recipients in Iowa, 1961"; professional publications dating from 1970-1981; various talks, dating from 1981-1999; a scrapbook from the National Association of Perinatal Social Workers annual meeting in 1985; job evaluations, dating from 1964-1987; salary letters and grades, dating from 1964-1987; and correspondence associated with Michael's retirement in 1987.
The Writings series includes Michael's religious publications and talks, dating from 1949-1990; a small collection of letters to the editor written in Iowa City, dating from 1964-2005; drafts of her religious publications; two logs of Michael's day-to-day experiences, dating from 1948-1956 and from 1957-1986; and two memoirs written by Michael, one detailing a trip to the United States from Nigeria in 1956, and one which begins with her birth in 1917 and continues through 1999.
The Correspondence series includes letters to friends and family, dating from 1944-2000; the annual Michael family newsletters, dating from 1964-1998; a large collection of letters and documents from Marianne Michael's mother, Helen Krueger Trent, dating from 1927-1980; a few letters from Zola Krueger, Michael's sister-in-law; a small collection of letters from the Michaels' eldest daughter Rosemary, dating from 1956-1984; a few letters from Clara Miller, a friend and quilting companion, dating from the mid-1970s; and an incomplete collection of the Round Robin letters circulated among Marianne Michael and her college friends, dating from 1979-2001.
The Garkida, Nigeria series contains correspondence between the Michaels and their relatives, dating from 1948-1961, and correspondence between the Michaels and family friends, the Vaughns, also dating from 1948-1961; some miscellaneous correspondence; an undated diary kept by Marianne Michael during her missionary work in Garkida; documents relating to the women's literacy group developed by the Michaels; and notes from the Sunday school lessons taught by Michael in Garkida.
The Church of the Brethren Conferences series includes travel brochures, correspondence, and conference programs from two church conferences: the annual meeting held in Portland, Oregon in 1991 and the National Older Adult Conference held in Lake Junaluska, North Carolina in 1996.
The Elizabeth Michael series includes a chronology of Elizabeth Michael's life, written by her mother Marianne Michael; a lock of Elizabeth's hair from 1959; schoolwork and artwork, dating from Hillcrest Boarding School in Nigeria from the late 1950s to the early 1960s, and from Iowa City Public School system from the early 1960s to the early 1970s; and a very large collection of letters written by Elizabeth Michael to her parents, dating from 1967-2000. This correspondence includes four folders of undated letters, plus one folder of letters which can be approximately dated, based on Elizabeth Michael's city of residence.
The Genealogy series includes three published genealogies written by Marianne Michael: Robert McLellan: Iowa Pioneer Farmer (1996), accompanied by three folders of the documents used as illustrations in this work, An Aschenbrenner Family: Hesse to USA (1998), The Jacob George Family of Adams County, Pennsylvania (1998), and Out of Ebern: A Michael Family History (2001).
Alternate Extent Statement: Photographs in box 1.
Access: The papers are open for research.
Use: Copyright held by the donor has been transferred to the University of Iowa, with the exception of three family histories written by Marianne Michael.
Acquisition: The papers (donor no. 662) were donated by Marianne Michael in 2000 and subsequent years.
Preferred Citation: Marianne Michael papers, Iowa Women's Archives, The University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City.
