IOWA WOMEN’S ARCHIVES
UNIVERSITY OF IOWA LIBRARIES
IOWA CITY, IOWA
CHRISTINE DUTSON (1954- )
PAPERS, 1954 - 2002
1.2 linear feet
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ACQUISITION: |
The papers (donor no. 347) were donated by Christine Dutson in 1996. |
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ACCESS: |
The papers are open for research. |
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COPYRIGHT: |
Copyright has been transferred to the University of Iowa. Copies of materials retained by Dutson family are available upon written request. |
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PROCESSED BY: |
Bridgett Williams-Searle,
1999.
[Dutson.doc] (revisions 2002) |
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Biography
Christine
Brewington was born in Toledo, Ohio on April 29, 1954. She was the eldest of
nine children raised by her mother, Laureen Kwart, and her mother’s husband, Robert
Brewington. As a child, she moved frequently throughout California. She was
painfully aware of her family’s poverty and her mother’s bouts with mental
illness. She craved affection, attention, stability, and order – she found
peace at school and as a member of the Roman Catholic church. She took joy in
academic and creative pursuits and in dating, but yearned to be a nun. She
became a novice in the Order of Carmelite Sisters of the Sacred Heart on
October 3, 1972. In late 1974, she left before taking vows because she felt
that “religious practices did not coincide with Biblical teachings.”
Once back
home, Brewington began corresponding with a family friend, Army radio operator
Eugene Lloyd Cheek. Within months, their friendship blossomed into love and
they married on December 6, 1975 at La Puente, California. As an Army wife,
Cheek soon found herself living on a military base in Germany. There, she gave
birth to the couple’s first child, Craig, on November 3, 1976. The family moved
back to the United States in 1978, settling in Missouri at Fort Leonard Wood.
On May 8, 1978, Cheek gave birth to their second child, Carrie. In 1980, her
husband returned to civilian life. The family moved to Fort Madison, Iowa in
pursuit of better employment for Eugene Cheek and better educational and
spiritual opportunities for the family as a whole.
Cut off from
the support of family and friends, Cheek struggled with the dual challenges of
motherhood and wifehood. She knew her income (as a dietary worker, then as a day
care provider) was crucial to family survival, but she longed to stay home with
her children and to get a college education. Moreover, although her family
remained active in the local Catholic church, she felt that there was something
missing in her faith life. During this time of readjustment and maturing,
missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons)
visited the Cheek household. She and her husband were baptized on July 17, 1982
and became active members of the church. Cheek’s faith sustained her through
mounting debts, near-constant moves between Iowa and Illinois, the failure of
business ventures, recurrent bouts of ill health, educational disappointments,
and the worsening mental health of extended family members.
In the
church, she found the support and perspective for which she’d longed. She
gained the confidence to express herself creatively, publishing a number of
poems and writing countless others. Despite numerous setbacks, Cheek also
persevered and obtained a BS in Education from Western Illinois University in
1989. She became a teacher of the gifted and talented in southeastern Iowa,
receiving professional recognition for her work. Equally importantly, she
learned to take pride in the accomplishments of Mormon womanhood – she improved
her homemaking, gardening, and food preservation skills, became an accomplished
genealogist and craftsperson, worked as a visiting teacher, and celebrated her
motherhood. She was also called to serve in several different capacities in her
church. The death of her husband in 1990 was made bearable by the knowledge
that, according to Mormon belief, their marriage was an eternal one; they would
be reunited after death.
Cheek
remarried on June 27, 1992, to Lorin LaMont Dutson; she has two step-children,
Chantal and Christopher. She has one grandchild, Anne-Marie Sattler, daughter
of Chantal Sattler. Although no longer teaching in the public school system,
she still conducts educational workshops for her home organization business.
She continues to keep a journal of reflections describing her daily affairs,
her intellectual life, and her efforts at spiritual growth in these “latter
days.”
Scope and Content Note
The
Christine Dutson papers date from 1954
to 2000 and measure 1.2 linear
feet. The papers are
arranged in two series:
Memoirs and Poetry.
The Memoirs series begins with an
unpublished work, “Enlightened by Enrichment: Teaching Gifted Education in a Rural
Iowa School District.” Dutson uses a combination of journal entries and topical
essays to describe and critique the programs she implemented in various
elementary schools in southeast Iowa between 1990-1995. This book-length essay
offers a wealth of practical details about classroom activity units as well as
many sobering insights into the structural and intellectual challenges facing
the special-needs educator in the 1990s.
The series continues with an unpublished collection of short essays on assorted topics. Subjects include Dutson’s experiences learning to drive, learning Spanish, doing laundry, and grocery shopping with her mother. She also shares with readers her attitudes on luck and her most joyful and sorrowful experiences.
Dutson’s
major unpublished memoir, “Time’s Chameleon,” offers a rare research
opportunity; it is an unusually lengthy and detailed spiritual autobiography
written by a woman of working-class origins. This intimate and moving
multi-volume work begins with an unblinking memoir of childhood poverty and
familial disorder. Later volumes examine changes in Dutson’s marriage, her work
experiences, the family’s struggles with debt and depression, and a wealth of
personal details about her relationships with her children, her parents, and
her husband. Volumes after 1982 are in journal form, capturing Dutson’s
immediate reactions to the events of her life. Richly evocative passages
chronicle her emotions as she experiences the uncertainty of widowhood and the
joys of new love. Dutson’s spiritual devotions, woven into the fabric of
everyday domestic activities or undertaken during service to her church
callings, grant historians a rare chance to observe the way in which religious
faith empowered and shaped one woman’s life. Her journals also provide abundant
evidence describing the roles and activities of LDS women in the church’s
day-to-day operations. Researchers seeking information on the treatment of the
mentally ill, the challenges of and changes in family life in the latter half of
the twentieth century, the entrepreneurial activities of women, or classroom
practice in the Iowa public school system also will be richly rewarded. Each
volume contains photocopies of photographs and memorabilia germane to the
writings therein.
Works in the Poetry series are arranged chronologically within topical
groupings. Dutson has annotated these works, adding descriptive matter
concerning their subjects or the circumstances of their composition.
Box no. Description
Box
1
Memoirs
“Enlightened by Enrichment: Teaching Gifted Education
in a Rural Iowa School District”
“Remembering: Assorted Topics”
“Star of the Sea: Remembrances of Serving the Lord as a Carmelite Novice”
“Time’s Chameleon, 1954-1998” [electronic disks are stored separately]
Volume I: Genesis, 1954-1974
Volume II: All of My Life, 1974-1975
Volume III: Jewels in Germany, 1976-1978
Volume IV: Musings in Missouri, 1978-1981
Volume V: Insights in Iowa, 1982-1984 (3
folders)
Volume VI: Inklings in Illinois,
1984-1985 (3 folders)
Volume VII: A Bend in the River,
1986-1987 (2 folders)
Volume VIII: A Bend in the River II,
1988-1989 (3 folders)
Box 2
Volume IX: Bittersweet Blossoms, 1990-1991
(2 folders)
Volume X: Indian Summer, 1992 (2 folders)
Volume XI: Indian Summer II, 1993 (2
folders)
Volume XII: The Year the Lentils Died,
1994
Volume XIII: Stuck in Mississippi Mud,
1995 (3 folders)
Volume XIV: Acquiescent Loosening, 1996
(3 folders)
Volume XV: Pioneering, 1997 (3 folders)
Volume XVI: Expanding, 1998 (2 folders)
Box 3
Volume XVII: Laying the Foundation, 1999
(2 folders)
Volume XVIII: Establishing Cornerstones,
2000
Volume XIX: Soul under Construction, 2001
Volume XX: Dedication Time, 2002
Poetry
“Encounters: Published and Unpublished Poetry about People I’ve Met (1994-1998)”
“Homestead: Published and Unpublished Poetry about Family Relationships
(1975-1998)”
“Indian Summer: Published and Unpublished Poetry about Loving Again
After Widowhood (1991-1995)”
“Poems, 1996-1998”
“Time’s Chameleon: Published and Unpublished Poetry about Self
(1982-1996)”
“Timeless
Realms: Published and Unpublished Poetry about Friendship (1991)”
Nauvoo Temple
In Balance
Correspondence, 2000
Marketing materials and tools to use with clients
Newsletters, 1999-2000
Newspaper columns (Fort Madison Daily Democrat), 1998-2000
Workshops