Jane Ann Steele Bigbee

We wish to honor Jane Ann Steele Bigbee by including her name in the Plaza of Heroines in Carrie Chapman Catt Hall at Iowa State University. She has had a long term association with Iowa State, graduating in 1953 from Iowa State College with a degree in Technical Journalism and a minor in Home Economics. While there, she was a member and past president of Alpha Gamma Delta women's fraternity and served as editor of their quarterly magazine. She has continued her support of Iowa State by serving on the Iowa State University Extension and the College of Consumer Science advisory boards.

She was born on October 6, 1930 in Cherokee, Iowa where she graduated from Wilson High School. Shortly after college graduation she married Garth Charles Bigbee, also an Iowa State graduate. They have lived in Marengo, Iowa since 1956. They have four grown children: Greg Bigbee and his wife, Verla, and children Dusty and LaCosta Goos, and Morgan Bigbee, Pella; Ann Bigbee and her husband, Charlie Scott, and children Catie and Jessie Scott, Marengo; Jan Bigbee-Hansen and her husband, Bill Bigbee-Hansen, and son Will Bigbee-Hansen, Renton, WA; and Jennifer Storck and her husband, Ray Storck ,and children Becky and Ryan Storck, Mesa, AZ. Another special person in their life is Jenny Cals, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and her friend, David Weenik, and their son Thomas. Jenny was an AFS student in their home in 1977.

Her activities include being a past president of Chapter AU PEO and the Marengo Junior Federated Club, and a member of First Presbyterian Church and the Pilot Rock chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution. She has served as a member of the Kirkwood Community College communications advisory committee. She has also served as the North Iowa County Chapter Red Cross service to military families, liaison for over 25 years. Currently, she is a lay member of the Iowa Supreme Court judicial grievance commission. In addition, she has been involved with community Betterment projects, which have received state recognition, including the Marengo Community Playground.

Jane started her career in journalism as an assignment writer for Wallaces Farmer magazine, and as a stringer for the Cedar Rapids Gazette, Des Moines Register, and WMT radio and television. She began work as news editor of The Pioneer-Republican Marengo in September 1968. She later was named managing editor, then editor and was editor-in-chief and general manager for a number of years for the The Newspapers of Iowa County, which is owned by Marengo Publishing Corporation, Marengo, Iowa. Both she and the staff have won a number of awards from the Iowa Newspaper Association and Iowa Press Women. For the past two years she has been editor of The Involvement Magazin,e published by the Heritage Agency on Aging, Cedar Rapids, and leased by Marengo Publishing Corporation. The involvement is a monthly publication for those 60 and over in 7 counties in east central Iowa.

7/1/96