Dates

• Existence: 1909 - 1998

Biography

Anita Cobb Crawford, Buchanan County Farm Bureau member, community volunteer, and farmer was born on July 2, 1909, the second of six children of Leslie and Maud Hill Cobb. At a young age, her family moved from the farm to Clear Lake, Iowa and in 1918 to Waterloo, Iowa. Cobb attended a high school in Waterloo, played violin in the school orchestra, and worked at Black's Tea Room after school. She left school in her senior year in 1927 to marry Theodore Roosevelt Crawford. Anita Crawford raised two daughters, Beverly and Joyce Crawford, while Theodore Crawford worked in Waterloo. During the Depression, when their children were school age, they moved to the outskirts of Waterloo in order to farm. They raised hogs and dairy cows and tended a large vegetable garden. In 1938 they bought 140 acres of land south of Jesup and built a home on it. Theodore Crawford commuted to work in town during the first year while Anita Crawford managed the daily operations on the farm.

The Crawfords became active in the Farm Bureau soon after their move to the farm. Anita Crawford became chairwoman of the Westburg Township Women's Club and in 1971 chairwoman of the Buchanan County Farm Bureau Women's Committee. She was a member of the Buchanan County women's chorus and a leader of her daughters' 4-H group. She volunteered at the Buchanan County Historical Society, and was active in the Jesup Methodist Church. Theodore Crawford also volunteered locally. He was chairman of the Health Insurance Agency board, the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Committee, the County Extension Council, the Farm Service board, and the Jesup school board. Both Crawfords were active farmers, raising crops, hogs, horses, chickens, goats, sheep, ducks and geese until their retirement. Theodore Crawford died in 1992 and Anita Crawford in 1998.

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