Dates

• Existence: 1913 - 1996

Biography

Katherine "Kay" Stroud was born in Little Rock, Arkansas on October 19, 1913. Her family moved to Chicago in 1918 where she was raised and continued to live following her marriage to Theodore Stroud in 1939. Theodore "Ted" Stroud was a professor of English at Drake University for many years.

In 1947 Katherine Stroud moved to Des Moines, Iowa where she became a leading force in the 1949 reform of Des Moines city government. As president of the League of Women Voters at the time of the election, she led the campaign to change the commissioner form of government to the city manager plan. Katherine Stroud served on a committee to monitor the transition to the new form of government as well as remaining active in various organizations and causes in Des Moines and the state, including the Iowa Library Association, the Des Moines City Library board of trustees, the board of directors of the Des Moines Community Playhouse, and the Great Books movement. From 1959 until her retirement in 1981, she was a book editor for Better Homes and Gardens.

Kay Stroud died in 1996 at the age of eighty-two.

Found in 1 Collection or Record: