| Honored by: | Marian Solomon |
| Brick location: | E:24 map |
Born Austin, Minnesota March 23, 1903; died Ames, Iowa January 3, 1993.
Valedictorian Austin (Minnesota) High School 1920; attended Carleton College and graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1924 majoring in Mathematics and Physics.
Served as a high school math teacher and county school administrator before marriage.
Married Clarence Clinton Loomer in 1928; two children: Marian Grace and Henry, who died at birth.
Active in The Methodist Church AAUW music groups.
She loved life with all its challenges and always available for others in need -- "One of God's most beautiful -- flowers."
I am most distressed by the continuing attacks on the naming of a building for Carrie Chapman Catt an honor graduate of ISU in 1880 who along with Susan B. Anthony labored her whole life to enable women -- Black as well as White -- to vote. All women owe her a great deal as indicated in chapter 10 of Strongminded Women of Iowa by Louise Noun. Without Catt's impassioned pleas to governors and legislatures in 1919 to act on the suffrage amendment it might have met the same defeat as the ERA.
I raise the following rhetorical questions: Have any of us never made a statement that someone else might take to be sexist or racist? Why are women always held up to a "higher" standard? I heard stories about the suffrage struggle from both my mother, Helen Loomer, and my grandmother, Grace Loomer, who had leadership roles in the WCTU in Minnesota. Thus I am requesting the adding of bricks in their honor in the Plaza of Heroines. We women could not have achieved great strides without the efforts of the "Heroines."
Sincerely,
Marian Grace Loomer Solomon
Sumbitted 9/26/96