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White, Sarah Dykstra, 1905-1979

 Person

Dates

  • Existence: 1905 - 1979

Biography

Sarah Berniece Dykstra was born on November 3, 1905 to Della Bonthius Dykstra and Ralph Dykstra. Sarah Dykstra was the second child, coming two years after her sister Dorothy, and preceding two boys, Clarence and Andrew. Dykstra grew up in Roseland, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago heavily populated by Dutch immigrants. Just before her senior year in high school, the Dykstra family moved to a farm near Rock Valley in northwest Iowa. Because Sarah Dykstra had not had algebra in her previous high school she was required to take it at Rock Valley. Stanley White, her future husband, on leave from his studies at Iowa State University, was the algebra teacher that year.

After graduating from high school in 1923, Sarah Dykstra and her family moved to Pasadena, California. Shortly after the move, her father left the family, taking the two boys and moving to Chicago. Following the separation there was some bitterness between the boys and their sisters, and it would be several years before relationships between the siblings improved.

After his graduation from Iowa State University in 1925, Stanley White hitchhiked to California to renew his acquaintance with his former pupil. Sarah Dykstra, who had been working at I. Magnin´s department store, decided to get additional education at this time and entered Pasadena Community College. Stanley White took various jobs until Dykstra graduated in 1927. The couple married on June 28, 1927 and in March 1928 they returned to Dallas Center, Iowa where Stanley took over the operation of his father´s farm. The White family lived on the farm for fifty years, raising their four children: Jeane (b1928), Carolyn (b1929), Donald (b1933) and Janice (b1938).

In 1979 Sarah Dykstra White died in a single car accident.

Found in 1 Collection or Record:

Sarah White papers

 Collection
Identifier: IWA0077
Abstract

Correspondence and circle letters of a northwestern Iowa farmwoman.

Dates: 1915-1979