The University of Iowa Libraries

Emmylou Bebensee Krohn, teacher, columnist, and farmwoman, was born November 3, 1920, in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and raised on a farm in Pottawattamie County, Iowa. After graduating from high school in 1937, she enrolled in the teacher certification program at Omaha University. She taught rural schools at Keg Creek in 1939 and 1940. Eugene Krohn was working for her father as a hired hand during these years. They courted with seven or eight other couples in the township, marrying at the local church on April 5, 1942. When World War II began, Eugene Krohn left for Kansas to serve in the military, and Emmylou Krohn taught another year at a Hardin township school. She then joined her husband where he was stationed in Battle Creek, Michigan, in 1944. While there, she acted as chaperone to other young, single women and taught at the base nursery school. In 1945, Eugene Krohn was dispatched overseas just before she delivered her son Max. She returned to her parents' farm in Iowa and was rejoined by her husband later that year.

Emmylou and Eugene Krohn then operated her family's farm. They had a second son Lyle in 1952 and a daughter Jane in 1954. In 1957, when Eugene Krohn had his first heart attack, the Krohns cut back on farming. In 1956, she began selling articles to Farm Journal and in the early 1960s began a weekly column for the Treynor Record. That year, she also found a teaching position at the Iowa School for the Deaf in Council Bluffs and began taking courses at Omaha University to complete her B. A. in education. In 1972, she co-authored a grammar textbook for hearing-impaired children. She gave numerous workshops based on this language program from 1973 until 1983, when she retired.

The Krohns left the farm to move to Council Bluffs in 1980. She continued teaching at the Iowa School for the Deaf until 1983 when their daughter had a severe stroke. She continued writing articles for the Treynor Record until 1986 and kept up an active correspondence with family and friends.

The Emmylou Krohn papers date from1940 to 1998 and measure 1.3 linear feet. The collection is divided into three series: Correspondence; Writings; and Professional.

The Correspondence series consists of letters written by Krohn to her children.

The Writings series includes two volumes of collected personal and published writings as well as four scrapbooks. The scrapbooks include news clippings about the Treynor 1976 bi-centennial celebration and Krohn's column "Surveying the Treynor Scene" written for the Treynor Record.

The Professional series includes a handmade souvenir booklet of the school she taught Keg Creek and another of a class she taught at the Iowa School for the Deaf. This series also includes the first edition of the grammar textbook for hearing-impaired students entitled Apple Tree that she co-authored with Janice Caniglia, Norma Jean Cole, Wyman Howard, and Marcia Rice. This series also includes photocopies of the covers, title pages, and introduction to the second edition of Apple Tree. Records of workshop presentations that she delivered on the Apple Tree curriculum to groups of educators complete this series.

Alternate Extent Statement: Photographs in Box 2

Access: The papers are open for research.

Use: Copyright possessed by the donor, except for Apple Tree textbook, has been transferred to the University of Iowa.

Acquisition: The papers were donated by Emmylou Krohn (donor no. 599) in 1999.

Preferred Citation: Emmylou Krohn papers, Iowa Women's Archives, The University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City.

Repository:	Iowa Women's Archives
Address:	100 Main Library University of Iowa Libraries Iowa City, IA 52242
Phone:	319-335-5068
Curator:	Kären Mason
Email:	lib-women@uiowa.edu
Website:	http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/iwa

This collection is indexed under the following subject terms.

Personal Names:
Krohn, Emmylou, 1920-

Dates:
20th century

Topics:
Women in education
Farm life
Rural families
Rural schools
Rural women

Occupations:
Columnists
Teachers

Geographic Names:
Pottawattamie County (Iowa)
Council Bluffs (Iowa)

Genre/Form of Materials:
Archives
Personal papers
Scrapbooks
Yearbooks

Browse:
Rural and Farm Women
Teachers and Teaching