Mary L. Hauer

Mary Lucille Hauer is being honored in the Plaza of Heroines in recognition of her accomplishments both as an educator and a mother. During a career that spanned over four decades, Mary influenced the lives of hundreds of children, including five of her own.

Mary was born September 8, 1924, on a small farm southwest of Waucoma, Iowa. Mary, the oldest child of Leo and Fidellis Sloan, has three brothers and three sisters. When Mary was three years old, the family moved to a farm near Fairbank, Iowa, where Mary attended Immaculate Conception School through the ninth grade. Hard times during the Depression years forced the family to move back to the Waucoma area in 1938. Mary graduated from the Waucoma Public High School in 1941. From a very early age, Mary's chosen vocation was teaching. In pursuit of her goal, she left the farm and attended Upper Iowa University, where she received her teaching degree in 1943. Mary began her professional career in Garrison, Iowa, where she taught 3rd and 4th graders. In 1944, Mary accepted a position at Decorah West Side School, where she taught for the next five years.

On November 3, 1948, Mary Sloan and Edmund Hauer were married at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Waucoma, Iowa. The couple established their home in nearby St. Lucas. Mary devoted the next sixteen years to her husband and five children: Peggy, John, Joyce, Paul and Donna. Once the youngest of her children was approaching school age, Mary returned to her teaching career.

She updated her teaching certificate by attending night and summer classes at Upper Iowa University. In 1966, she began teaching kindergarten at Turkey Valley Community School in Jackson Junction, Iowa. For the next twenty one years until her retirement in 1986, Mary enjoyed guiding hundreds of youngsters through their first year of school. Mary remains active in the St. Lucas community. She is a member of the American Legion Auxiliary, the Catholic Daughters of America, and the Catholic Order Foresters. In 1994, Mary and four of her friends received the Governor's Volunteer Award for tutoring an individual who sustained brain injuries resulting from a lightening strike.

It is said that a teacher's influence lasts forever. Mary has left her lasting influence on generations of Iowa’s children. Her name is an appropriate addition to the Plaza of Heroines.

9/30/94

Paver Inscription:

Mary L. Hauer
A teacher and mother
whose influence will never end

Brick also located at: H9