Dates

• Existence: 1909-

Biography

Wilma M. Belden, newspaper columnist and editor, was born on March 19, 1909 to Lillie Mae Thompson Belden and Dwight Moody Belden on a farm 1 1/2 miles east of Minburn, Iowa where her grandparents were pioneers in the 1800s. She attended Sugar Grove Country school through the seventh grade and graduated from Minburn High School in 1927. In December 1927, Wilma Belden married Dean Donald Collins of rural Dallas Center and moved to his grandparents' estate farm south of Stuart, Iowa. The couple raised two children: Virginia Lynn Collins Ruth (1932-1986) and Donald Christy Belden Collins (b. 1934). The death of Virginia Lynn Collins Ruth, at age fifty-four, had a profound effect on Collins. She was proud of her daughther's work as an artist and once said that Ruth accomplished more in fifty-four years than others did in a lifetime.

The Great Depression of the late 1920s and 1930s caused one member of the Collins family to force their mother to sell the farm following the death of his father, relocating the couple temporarily to Collins' grandparents' home in Minburn. That same year they went into the trucking business. In 1942 the couple moved to Grimes, Iowa where several years previously they had established rights for the Grimes canning factory trucking business.

Collins began her journalistic career working as a newspaper correspondent for Thorpe Publications Weekly from 1946 to 1947, and was the editor and columnist for Grimes News Supplement of the Dallas Center Times from 1947 until 1952. From 1952 until 1954 she was a staff member on the Iowan magazine, which premiered in 1952. She obtained her realtor's license in 1953 while attending Drake University in Des Moines from 1953-1954. After having worked for various realtor's in the Des Moines area, she formed Collins Real Estate in 1964. Her education continued at Des Moines Community College from 1962 to 1966.

In 1970 Collins organized the Women's Council of Greater Des Moines Board of Realtors and served as president from 1972 to 1973. She was appointed by Governor Robert D. Ray to the Terrace Hill Commission of Des Moines in 1972, restoring the century-old mansion for the governor's residence and served as director until 1980. She was the fourth person to receive the Medal of Freedom from the Republicans in the Iowa Senate in 1994. Previous recipients have been former President Ronald Reagan, Lady Margaret Thatcher, and Charlton Heston.

Collins was active in many organizations, including: the Polk County Red Cross, earning the coveted ten-year pin and certificate of service; the American Soroptimist Club; the Iowa Press Women's Association; Iowa Press Women, Inc.; National Federation of Press Women, Inc.; Women's Council, Greater Des Moines Board of Realtors; Iowa Association of Realtors; and National Association of Realtors. She was one of the organizers of the Iowa United Nations and served for many years on the public relations committee.

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