Biography

Kathy Bollin was born in 1949 in Hemet, near Sun City, California. Her parents had been born and raised in rural Illinois and moved to California in the 1940s. She attended college in Los Angeles and worked for several years, before traveling to Keokuk, Iowa with a friend. While here, she met Michael Bollin, a farmer and electrician, and they married. They lived on a farm in Nauvoo, Illinois; Michael Bolllin worked as a union electrician and Kathy Bollin raised four small children. In 1980, they bought 160 acres near Keokuk, Iowa, with a variable mortgage from the Federal Land Bank. Sixty acres were tillable, the farm house lacked running water, central heat, or a modern cook stove. In the early 1980, the interest on the variable rate mortgage increased dramatically while union jobs for electricians could not be found. The Bollins faced loss of their farm and equipment. They became active in PrairieFire Rural Action. The Federal Land Bank put their farm for auction in 1980, drawing a large protest crowd. In 1987, Bill Gillette did a documentary of the Bollin family facing the crisis. Kathy Bollin returned to college, became a registered nurse in 1990, and works full time at a local hospital. Michael Bollin continues to farm on the acres that was not sold in the 1980s.

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