• Article Photo. Nira (Primmer) Geiger, Vinton, in her home 1983
    Nira (Primmer) Geiger, Vinton, in her home 1983
  • Article Photo. Nira (Primmer) Geiger Basketball front left, Vinton
    Nira (Primmer) Geiger Basketball front left, Vinton
  • Article Photo. Nira Primmer (Geiger) at left, with doll and
    Nira Primmer (Geiger) at left, with doll and "cab," her sister Mary with horse.
  • Article Photo. Nira Primmer front and center
    Nira Primmer front and center

Celebrate Women's History month:
Friday, March 25 free showing of

Her Own Story: A Montage of Benton County Women
Palace Theater, Vinton
4:30 - 5:15pm

The Vinton Branch of the American Association of University Women selected and interviewed ten Benton County women on audio tape 25 years ago. The individual women's stories run about 4 hours each. Tapes and two photos of each subject were assembled in note books given to their home town libraries and the Iowa State Historical Library in DesMoines.

The life reviews, about 40 hours of material, were later transcribed with a grant from Humanities Iowa and the National Endowment for the Humanities. A very condensed print version of the ten life stories was published and placed in the libraries as well. Participating interviewers and photography editors included Lois Banse, Ann Harrison, Dee Hensing, Jane LaGrange, Bill Meigs, Lauretta Rice, Meg Walker, Julie Zimmer.

The ten women who shared their stories on tape are now deceased, but not forgotten.

 

They are:

Jennie Koch Beck, Keystone/Belle Plaine

Bess Shurtliff Burrows, Belle Plaine

Nira Primmer (Narber, Knapp) Geiger, Vinton

Freida Brehm Geiken, Vinton

Ruth Congwar Mumford, Fremont Township

Dorothy Wiegand (Pollock) Salle, Mt. Auburn

Alvena Selken Schroeder, rural Keystone

Allegra Grady Schueler, Van Horne

Gertrude Smith, (Cayton, England) rural Vinton

Esther Williams, Vinton.

 

One of the women, whose story will be told, is Nira Geiger.  She had a hard life, but sits down to share her story.

Nira Geiger - a long-time Vinton resident, born Nira Primmer.  She was divorced after her first marriage and had a small boy to raise.  In those early days divorce was not common and she told about being discriminated against.  But she overcame that, went on to marry successfully a second time and when her husband died she married a third time.  She died in 1999 at age 97.

Content provided by Jane LaGrange

Photos courtesy of Julie Zimmer