My UU
Autobiography
FAMILY
I
was born in Des Moines, Iowa in 1927. My mother was a retired physical education
and health teacher and my father was a family physician. My only sibling was my
sister Geri, two years younger than me. My parents were very much in charge.
Our family was not a democracy. But my parents were very kind and gentle. There
was never physical punishment, just “sit in the corner and think about it.” The
years I was a child were during the Great Depression. We were not poor but we
were not rich. We lived in a 2-bedroom bungalow. If patients of Dad’s paid their
bill in farm-grown produce, mother canned it. She made many of my clothes and
then they were passed down to my sister. But we went on a 2-week vacation every
summer and I had seen National Parks and historical points of interest in about
two thirds of the states by the time I went off to college. In my twenties I
married George who was finishing up his PhD in psychology and became a
professor of psychology at Winona State College (now Winona State University).
We raised our two kids in Winona. After 20 years of marriage, George and I were
divorced. I now have 3 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren.
EDUCATION/CAREER
I
had Kindergarten through ninth grade in Des Moines, 10th, 11th,
and 12th in three high schools in Oregon and California. This was
because my dad served in the Army Medical Corps during World War II. He served
in the states the entire 4 years he was in the Army, and we moved to be with
him wherever he was stationed. I graduated from high school in Seaside, Oregon,
and started college at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. The family was still
in Oregon. My parents wanted me near my aunt who was housemother at Simpson,
and my paternal grandfather who lived in Indianola. Dad was discharged the
following year and I moved home and finished up college at Drake University in
Des Moines. I then took a course for Medical Technology in St. Paul, Minnesota.
I worked in various hospital labs from 1948 to 1955 and again from 1974 to
1981. In between I was a full-time homemaker. Then at age 53 and 54 I completed
the course work for Physician Assistant at the University of Iowa Medical
School, and worked as a PA for 17 years until the age of 72.
RELIGIOUS
HISTORY
Our
family went to the Presbyterian Church in Des Moines every Sunday. I started
questioning things I learned in Sunday school at a very young age and was told
by Mom that I just “had to take it on faith.” Since I didn’t know what that
meant, I continued wondering but not asking her about it. I continued
questioning and going to church off and on, until marriage and children, then
joined the Congregational Church in Winona. I continued questioning and went
through a 3-4 year period of atheism. When my dad recovered from a life-threatening
illness in the 1970’s I came back to agnosticism and prayer to a non-personal
God based on my belief in the power of thought. I attended Unity Churches for a
while and then finally found Olympia Brown Unitarian-Universalist Church (OBUUC)
in 1995. Here I feel I can continue questioning and searching, which I hope to
do for the rest of my life.
INVOLVEMENT
at OBUUC
At
OBUUC I served as a Religious Education teacher, 3-4 years on the RE Committee,
the ministerial intern committee, as church greeter for coffee hour and
ushering, and as an auction helper. I am currently involved in First Friday
get-together and Third Thursday Ministry Group. And I have taken many of Tony’s
classes (our minister), and I attend church most every Sunday.
OTHER
IMPORTANT ACTIVITIES/ASSOCIATIONS
In
Winona, I served on the Board of the YWCA, supervised the Y-teen group, and was
editor of the Y newsletter. Also in Winona I was a Girl Scout Leader and
involved in the League of Women Voters. I also did telephone counseling at the
Crisis Hotline for people in trouble or suicidal. My volunteer work here in
Racine is at the Harmony Club, and as a tutor at the Racine Literacy Council. I
am a member of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) here in
Racine. I have served on the Board of the Unity Church of Kenosha, and on the
Board of the Racine branch of the National Association for the Mentally Ill (NAMI).
I have traveled to many of the country’s large cities and to every state in the
contiguous United States, but have never traveled outside the country.
