Daugherty Family - Miranda Jean DeHaven (1911-1991)

This is why I love this blogsite. There are so many interesting questions and so many places to at least start to find answers. The previous post concerned an article that Miranda Jean DeHaven, aunt of Jean DeHaven the muleskinner and mother's first cousin, had written concerning a Wessington blacksmith and Theodore Roosevelt. While I'm not related to the first Jean by marriage, nor to this particular blacksmith, I wanted to know more about the writer. I found an article about the Walz family, whom Jean married into. It's interesting to note that a sister of Jean's husband Robert Chaussee Walz was married to Siguard Anderson, Governor of SD from 1951-55. He has a long and respected list of accomplishments, as does our Jean.

Here is what I found on walzfarmerfamilies.net concerning Miranda Jean DeHaven (1911-1991). "Jean DeHaven Walz, passed away Thursday night, August 15, 1991 at University of Utah Medical Center, after a long battle with cancer. She was the daughter of Albert DeHaven and Eva Iddings. Note: Mother's aunt Helen Daugherty DeHaven married this Albert's son Thomas.

Education included graduation from Wessington, South Dakota High School, B.A. degree at Northern State College, Aberdeen, South Dakota, M.A. degree at U of South Dakota of Vermillion, graduate work at University of Colorado. Educator for over 40 years teaching primary and secondary schools in South Dakota, Iowa and Montana. She was an instructor and professor at Univeristy of South Dakota and South Dakota State University and retired as Professor Emeritus of English in 1977.

Charter member of the South Dakota Commission on the Humanities and served as secretary, vice-chairman and chairman. She was a member of the planning committee that founded the Federation of Public Programs in the Humanities and was elected as a charter member of the Federation's Executive Committee. She was chosen to serve as a panelist and reviewer for the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 1981 she received the Distinguished Award in the Humanities, South Dakota. She was an active member of the American Association of University Women, South Dakota, serving on the board for 18 years and as state president for two years. In 1972 A.A.U.W. Fellowship money in South Dakota was named in her honor.

She was an active community volunteer and served as chairman and board director member for the Community Cultural Center; chairman of the Brookings Area Betterment Committee and active in the First Baptist Church while at Brookings (S.D.). Member of PEO Sisterhood in South Dakota.

Married Robert C. Walz in Great Falls, Montana. She and her husband retired to Salt Lake City. While in Salt Lake City she was a member of the PEO Sisterhood, and A.A.U.W."

Elsewhere in the site: "After high school and a year at the University of South Dakota, Robert (1920 - 2005) took a job with the City of Vermillion. Across the street from city hall was a bowling alley, and it was there he began a relationship with Jean DeHaven, his high school math teacher. Bob and Jean had three sons, Living Walz of Kansas City, Missouri; Living Walz of Salt Lake City, Utah' and Clark Allen Walz."

This may be the last mention of this Jean on my blogsite (you never know, though), but I just had to know more about this excellent writer.