Did You Know? 1999.

Posted on October 31, 2022 by Our Iowa Heritage

It’s a special honor when the USPS releases a commemorative postage stamp celebrating your life. Over the years, there have been only a handful of good folks with strong Iowa connections who have shared in that honor.

In 1999 – Iowa’s Music Man – Meredith Willson.

Meredith Willson (May 18, 1902 – June 15, 1984) distinguished himself as a writer of symphonic works and popular songs. His most famous work, The Music Man, premiered on Broadway in 1957, and was adapted twice for film (1962 and 2003). The idea for the show began in 1949, when he was reminiscing with friends about his childhood years in Mason City, Iowa. Willson referred to the show as “an Iowan’s attempt to pay tribute to his home state.”

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Did You Know? 1912.

Posted on October 28, 2022 by Our Iowa Heritage

When the University of Illinois debuted their new “homecoming” idea in 1910, inviting current students, faculty, staff and alumni to join together for a special weekend of celebration, it wasn’t long before other Western Conference (Big Ten) schools decided to do the same. And from the very beginning in 1912, Homecoming in Iowa City included, of course, a football game.

While the Hawkeyes had been involved in “conference” football since 1899, it was on November 23, 1912, when the Wisconsin Badgers came to play at Iowa Field, when SUI hosted its first Homecoming football game. Sadly, the Hawks lost that day (28-10), but that didn’t stop Iowa Citians from celebrating that first Homecoming gathering.

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Did You Know? 2021.

Posted on October 26, 2022 by Our Iowa Heritage

On June 24, 2021, Johnson County, Iowa did something counties rarely do. Originally named for the ninth Vice President of the United States, Richard M. Johnson (1837-1841), the Johnson County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to change our county’s eponym (namesake), placing Lulu Merle Johnson (1907-1995) into that lofty position. Johnson was a BA and MA graduate of The University of Iowa (1930), the second African-American woman in the U.S. to earn a Ph.D. in History, and the first to receive a Doctorate of any kind in Iowa!

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