Skip to main content

Cousin, Ruth Hager, 1895-1994

 Person

Dates

  • Existence: 1895 - 1994

Biography

Ruth Olive Hager was born in 1895 to William and Emma Hager of Iowa. Hager attended Ellsworth Academy for two years and Alden High School for one year. She then attended Iowa State University for a year before earning her teaching certificate. Hager taught at two Iowa schools before her admittance to the Illinois Training School for Nurses in 1917. Hager graduated from the nursing program in 1920. She returned to Iowa and cared for a sick grandfather ("Grandpa Johnson") and then did private nurse duty for a time before securing a position as county nurse in Franklin County in 1922. Ruth Hager married Walter Luin Cousin on June 2, 1923 in Burdette, Iowa and resigned her post as county nurse. The couple had two children, Richard and Helen (who later married Gar Schneider). During the 1929 typhoid epidemic Cousin practiced emergency nursing in Iowa Falls. After serving three years as school nurse in Marshalltown, Cousin was appointed school nurse in Iowa Falls in 1934, a position she held until her retirement in 1965. Cousin was honored by the Business and Professional Women Iowa Falls chapter in 1958 as their Woman of the Year. Ruth Cousin died on September 4, 1994.

Found in 1 Collection or Record:

Ruth Hager Cousin papers

 Collection
Identifier: IWA0522
Abstract

Trained as a nurse between 1917 and 1920, and worked as a school nurse in Iowa Falls and Marshalltown, Iowa from 1931 to 1965.

Dates: 1914-1985