Dates

• Existence: 1907 - 2001

Biography

Irene Winifred Else Hoover, farm woman, 4-H leader, and volunteer, was born in Mahaska County and graduated from Oskaloosa High School in 1924. She married Carl W. Hoover, a fellow farmer, the following year. She devoted considerable time and care to their first child Elvin, who was born with significant health and developmental problems. Their second son Dale enjoyed an abundance of health, eventually graduating from the University of Chicago with a Ph.D. in Economics. During their childhood, Irene Hoover led a girls' 4-H club. After they were older, she chaired the Mahaska County Farm Bureau Women's Committee and served on its state board. She attended the Associated Country Women of the World conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1950 and represented the Iowa Farm Bureau Women at the annual meeting of the Rural Health Council of the American Medical Association in Portland, Oregon in 1956. That year, she was honored as a Master Farm Homemaker. She became involved in international exchanges in the 1960s, hosting many visiting international guests. She was a member of the Board of Social Welfare of Mahaska County for twenty years, beginning in 1962. She served on the Iowa Legislative Study Committee for Mental Health in 1956 and 1962. Nominated as Iowa Mother of the Year, she became a "Merit Mother" in 1963. She co-chaired the Mahaska County Republican Party for four years and belonged to various women's clubs. She joined and was active at the national level in the Friends Church. Her husband, Carl W. Hoover, died suddenly in 1973. Irene Hoover and her son Elvin Hoover moved to Raleigh, North Carolina in 1988 to be closer to Dale Hoover, then on the faculty of the University of North Carolina. Irene Hoover passed away September 2, 2001.

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