IOWA WOMEN’S ARCHIVES
UNIVERSITY OF IOWA LIBRARIES
IOWA CITY, IOWA
GWENDOLYN JOHNSON HEIN
(1911- )
PAPERS, 1892-1997
1.5 linear inches
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ACQUISITION: |
The papers (donor no. 563) were donated by Gwendolyn Johnson Hein in
1998. |
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ACCESS: |
The papers are open for research. |
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COPYRIGHT: |
Copyright held by the
donor has been transferred to the University of Iowa. |
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PROCESSED BY: |
Doris Malkmus, 2001.
[HeinG.doc] |
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Biography
Gwendolyn Johnson Hein, basketball player,
seed store operator, and farm woman was born in 1911, one of four children of
William and Emma Johnson of Newhall, Iowa.
During her childhood, she spent weekends playing with siblings and
neighboring friends, coasting, riding horses, and playing ball. As a teenager, she remembered “wearing out
the carpet” with dancing,” to her mother’s piano playing or records. While attending Newhall High School, she
took speech classes, took part in musicals and plays, and gave an oration at
graduation. Along with her friend
Luella Gardeman Boddicker, she joined the school basketball team that played a
three-court game.
After the 1924 state girls’ high school championship tournament, the Iowa High School Athletic Association announced they were eliminating the state tournament for girls’ basketball. Gwen Johnson and Luella Gardeman rode horses from farm to farm to convince neighbors to support the continuation of girls’ basketball tournaments. Before the next year, school officials founded the Iowa Girls’ High School Athletic Union that sponsored the 1925 tournament. Newspaper accounts of Newhall’s victory in the 1927 state tournament are located in the collection.
Hein went to Coe College in Cedar Rapids for one
year. While there, she played intramural
basketball, softball, field hockey, and studied tap dancing. The financial crisis of the Depression ended
her schooling. She married Hugo Hein in
1941 and they raised three children, Russ, Kay, and James on a farm. In 1965, Hugo and Gwen opened a seed
dealership in Stanwood, Iowa that Hugo ran until his retirement. Gwen Hein continued to live in Stanwood
after Hugo Hein died in 1997.
Scope and
Content Note
The Gwen Johnson Hein papers date from 1892 to 1997
and measure 1.5 linear inches. The
papers consist of newspaper clippings regarding the 1927 Newhall High School
girls’ basketball state championship win in 1927, family photographs, a high
school autograph book, and a five-year diary from 1961 to 1964 complete the
collection. The diary entries note many
sports and social activities as well as farm work.
Box no. Description
Box 1 Newspaper
clippings, 1994 and 1997
Diary, 1961-1964; Autograph
book, 1927
Photographs,
1892-1965 and undated