Luella Marie Guddall Stow

My mother Luella (Guddall) Stow, was born in 1909, in Thor, Iowa to a Norwegian immigrant father and a first American-generation Norwegian mother, San and Minnie Guddall. As did many small town teens of her generation, she "boarded out" during the week to attend four years of high school in Eagle Grove, Iowa. After high school graduation, she began teaching in country one-room schools. Several years of this work made it possible for her to save enough money to enroll at Iowa State College in 1933. But it was the depths of the Great Depression and that summer her father's business went bankrupt, the Thor bank closed leaving her family without any cash, and her younger brother died. She and her sister had already withdrawn their accounts as they prepared to leave for college; instead they paid for a funeral and other family needs and returned to teaching in the fall.

My mother was offered a position at the Dolliver schools by an uncle - a school-board member. She soon met and married my father and, of course, no longer taught as only one job per family was acceptable in those difficult years. She has since raised six children, assisted her husband in his family business until his early death, ran the business herself for a number of years, worked elsewhere as a bookkeeper after "retirement," done volunteer work as "Grandma Lue" in an Estherville kindergarten class, and continues to live independently as she always has.

My mom reads, thinks, travels, and grows. Always interested in life, she has been an exciting and loving example to her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Her love for Iowa State has resulted in four daughters who attended (one of whom graduated from ISU and two elsewhere) and two granddaughters (so far) who have spent part of their college years here. The placing of her name in the Plaza will remind all of us that her love of education was never denied by circumstances but was only shaped and passed in different form to all her family.

Submitted on 7/1/96