Emmylou Krohn papers

Collection

Identifier: IWA0634

Staff Only
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Scope and Contents

The Emmylou Krohn papers date from 1940 to 1998 and measure 12.3 linear inches. The collection is divided into three series: Correspondence, Writings, and Professional.

The Correspondence series consists of letters written by Krohn to her children.

The Writings series includes two volumes of collected personal and published writings as well as four scrapbooks. The scrapbooks include news clippings about the Treynor 1976 bi-centennial celebration and Krohn's column "Surveying the Treynor Scene" written for the Treynor Record.

The Professional series includes a handmade souvenir booklet of the school she taught Keg Creek and another of a class she taught at the Iowa School for the Deaf. This series also includes the first edition of the grammar textbook for hearing-impaired students entitled Apple Tree that she co-authored with Janice Caniglia, Norma Jean Cole, Wyman Howard, and Marcia Rice. This series also includes photocopies of the covers, title pages, and introduction to the second edition of Apple Tree. Records of workshop presentations that she delivered on the Apple Tree curriculum to groups of educators complete this series.

Dates

Creation: 1940-1998

Creator

Krohn, Emmylou, 1920- (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

The papers are open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright held by the donor has been transferred to the University of Iowa except for Apple Tree textbook.

However, copyright status for some collection materials may be unknown. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owner. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility and potential liability based on copyright infringement for any use rests exclusively and solely with the user. Users must properly acknowledge the Iowa Women’s Archives, The University of Iowa Libraries, as the source of the material. For further information, visit https://www.lib.uiowa.edu/sc/services/rights/

Biographical / Historical

Emmylou Bebensee Krohn, teacher, columnist, and farmwoman, was born November 3, 1920, in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and raised on a farm in Pottawattamie County, Iowa. After graduating from high school in 1937, she enrolled in the teacher certification program at Omaha University. She taught rural schools at Keg Creek in 1939 and 1940. Eugene Krohn was working for her father as a hired hand during these years. They courted with seven or eight other couples in the township, marrying at the local church on April 5, 1942.

When World War II began, Eugene Krohn left for Kansas to serve in the military, and Emmylou Krohn taught another year at a Hardin township school. She then joined her husband where he was stationed in Battle Creek, Michigan, in 1944. While there, she acted as chaperone to other young, single women and taught at the base nursery school. In 1945, Eugene Krohn was dispatched overseas just before she delivered her son Max. She returned to her parents' farm in Iowa and was rejoined by her husband later that year.

Emmylou and Eugene Krohn then operated her family's farm. They had a second son Lyle in 1952 and a daughter Jane in 1954. In 1957, when Eugene Krohn had his first heart attack, the Krohns cut back on farming. In 1956, she began selling articles to Farm Journal and in the early 1960s began a weekly column for the Treynor Record. That year, she also found a teaching position at the Iowa School for the Deaf in Council Bluffs and began taking courses at Omaha University to complete her B.A. in education.

In 1972, she co-authored a grammar textbook for hearing-impaired children. She gave numerous workshops based on this language program from 1973 until 1983, when she retired. The Krohns left the farm to move to Council Bluffs in 1980. She continued teaching at the Iowa School for the Deaf until 1983 when their daughter had a severe stroke. She continued writing articles for the Treynor Record until 1986 and kept up an active correspondence with family and friends.