Biography

The Iowa State College Cooperative Extension Service and the Iowa Farm Bureau organized the County Women's Chorus program in 1937 to provide social and cultural opportunities for rural women. Choruses met two to four times a month to practice under a volunteer director. They performed at various functions throughout the year, culminating in a statewide festival performance and competition at the Iowa State Fair. The Sioux County Women's Chorus was organized in 1938 under the leadership of Mrs. Roggen. That year, it was rated one of the top four choruses of the state's sixty-four women's choruses. In 1939, the Sioux County Women's Chorus was invited to represent Iowa at the New York World's Fair. The chorus raised funds for the trip from various County Farm Bureau offices and extension services across the state, as well as many Sioux County businesses. The chorus women went to New York, sang on a nationally broadcast radio program, and sang on stage at the world's fair before Eleanor Roosevelt gave the keynote address for the Rural Women's Day on May 23, 1939. The chorus continued to perform at the local and state level until the County Women's Chorus program was phased out in 1993.

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