Janette Stevenson Murray

"Her contributions have been notable and worthy of highest recommendation on a number of scores... [she] has made a significant impact in role choice for women, in the suffrage movement, in media development, in education, and as a national newsmaker." —Carol Zeigler, 1995

Janette Stevenson Murray was a Cedar Rapids civic leader, an early suffragist, educator, lecturer, and writer. Among her accomplishments were fighting for Women's right to vote, helping to establish the Child Welfare Station at the University of Iowa, and serving as president of the Cedar Rapids Board of Education from 1923-24 at a time when few women in the country held that responsibility. She wrote feature articles for women entitled "The Modern Mother in Home, School, and Community," which appeared each week in The Evening Gazette as well as delivered radio talks on child training. As the state Parent Teacher Association chairperson of parent education, she organized study groups, out of which came three 64-page booklets that sold nationally. She co-wrote The Story of Cedar Rapids with her husband, Frederick G. Murray, M.D., published a history of her Tama birthplace, They Came To North Tama, and later went on to produce two more books on Tama County with her daughter. Among her awards are the national Brotherhood Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews, 1947 American Mother of the Year from the American Mothers' Association and the Golden Rule Foundation, and the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from her alma mater, Coe College. Murray was born in 1874 and died in 1967. She was inducted into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame in 1996.