Dates

• Existence: 1906 - 1989

Biography

Prison reformer and community activist Marta Lucia Brown Werner was born in 1906 in Hermosillo, Mexico, to Mexican national Maria (Concha) Concepcion Morales and miner Frank Russell Brown, a U.S. citizen. The Browns left Mexico during the nationalist uprising led by Pancho Villa and moved to Fort Madison, Iowa, in 1914. Marta Brown graduated from Fort Madison High School in 1924 and received her bachelor's degree in mathematics from Webster College in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1928. Following graduation, she worked as a sales representative for Sheaffer Pen Company.

Marta Brown married Dr. Harold Theodore Werner in Cornwall-on-the-Hudson, New York, in 1931. The couple settled in Fort Madison, Iowa, and raised six children: Harold Theodore, Jr. (Ted), Lucia Dean (Deana), Elizabeth (Libby), Adelaide, Maria, and Margaret (Maggie). Harold Werner died in 1968.

Following her husband's death, Marta Werner became involved in community service in Fort Madison. Werner's major volunteer activity was her work at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison. She served as a lay minister for prisoners and assisted prison groups such as prison branches of the NAACP and Alcoholics Anonymous with meetings and programs. In addition, Werner personally corresponded with dozens of prisoners and their families between 1973 and 1989. For her tireless work at the penitentiary she was awarded the State of Iowa Volunteer Service Award in 1981. Werner ran for city mayor in 1973 and campaigned against the proposed rerouting of Highway 61 through Fort Madison's minority neighborhoods. Marta Werner remained active in her volunteer activities until she contracted bone cancer in June of 1988. She died in 1989.

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