Biography

Dorothy Fox Wurster was born April 23, 1931 to Ella Rose and Leslie Fox near Rose Hill in Mahaska County, Iowa. At age ten, she was interested in joining 4-H. In order for girls to join the boys' 4-H club, they had to participate in the girls' group as well. She therefore joined the Monroe Township girls' 4-H club "Busy Bees," of which her mother was co-leader, and the boys' 4-H club, the "Monroe Livewires," co-led by her father. She won the Mahaska County boys' 4-H club award for the best member under sixteen. She continued to show her Polled Hereford in 4-H cattle shows and competitions across the state, meeting her future husband at a judging contest in 1947. She attended Iowa State Teachers' College, now the University of Northern Iowa, in 1948-1949, and taught rural school that fall. Dorothy Fox married Howard Wurster; they raised cattle on a Ringgold County farm. She began attending Graceland College when her son was in third grade, graduating in 1970. She taught kindergarten for thirty years in East Union Community school in Afton and earned a master's degree in Education in 1986. During the farm crisis of the 1980s, she led a support group, and in 1987 spoke effectively before the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee Hearing on the farm crisis in Underwood, Iowa. [See "Writings" folder for more biographical information.]

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