I'm an Iowa girl, born and raised in Marshalltown. I lived out east—in Newport, Rhode Island, for ten years with my first husband—and then we moved back to Iowa where we eventually divorced. I stayed here to raise my children and found a full-time teaching job at Hawkeye Community College. I remarried in 2000—Mike is a farmer turned teacher, turned librarian/IT guy/geek. We enjoy driving in the country in the fall: Mike points out the tractors and harvesting equipment and comments on the state of the corn and soybean crops. He's become a wonderful Step-dad and Papa Mike to our two grandsons and now Nora, our granddaughter.
The picture in the upper left represents four generations. I'm holding my daughter, Michelle, with my mother, Charlotte, and grandma Nellie.
I retired in 2016 as a Professor in the Communications Department at Hawkeye Community College, in Waterloo, Iowa where I taught a variety of Literature and Writing courses as well as a Technology course for the Education students. I reinvented myself in retirement, working as a volunteer and advocate for the League of Women Voters of Black Hawk-Bremer Counties. I'm a writer, webmaster, blogger, geek, and family historian working on several writing projects, most notably the series Grandmother's Treasures.
Shortly after retirement, I was asked to serve on a community-wide Committee for the Cedar Falls Authors Festival and saw the need for a website, so I serve as the webmaster for www.cfauthorsfestival.org. I'm also the webmaster for the Ruth Suckow Memorial Association website, www.ruthsuckow.org. I continue to maintain the Cedar Falls Authors Festival site as well as our local League page, www.lwvbhb.org
Married to Mike Dargan, we have two adult children Mikki and Jon, (plus a talented, lovely daughter-in-law Anna and funny, smart son-in-law Sean,) and two grandsons, Corbin and Mason, and Nora, our new granddaughter. We love spending time with family. When there isn't a pandemic, we share a love for exploring history, and taking road trips, telling family stories, playing with technology, binging Netflix shows, and advocating for voting rights.
Below, My grandson, 13, loves being taller than grandma! My granddaughter, Nora, looks like a mini librarian and I definitely want a dress like hers. My son Jon, his wife Anna, and the kids at a recent visit.
