|
|
1 _MDCL Acute appendicitis
Death Certificate, Iowa 116-67-27650
SS# 481-09-8725
WWI Vet
Furniture Salesman
Buried at Rose Hill Cemetery, Shenandoah, IA[Jamestho.FTW]Death Certificate, Iowa 116-67-27650
SS# 481-09-8725
WWI Vet
Furniture Salesman
Buried at Rose Hill Cemetery, Shenandoah, IA
IOWA WOMEN’S ARCHIVES
UNIVERSITY OF IOWA LIBRARIES
IOWA CITY, IOWA
TITLE:»EDYTHE STIRLEN (1895-1987)
SUBTITLE:»
»PAPERS, DATES:»1930-1981
QUANTITY:»4 linear feet
and audiovisual material
ACQUISITION:
The »papers (donor no. 206) were donated by »Rosalee Hillman, Edythe Stirlen's daughter, in 1994.ACCESS:
The »papers are open for research.AUDIOVISUAL:
»One audiocassette shelved in audiocassette collection (AC124).COPYRIGHT:
»Copyright has been transferred to the University of Iowa.PHOTOGRAPHS:
In boxes »1 and 12.PROCESSED BY:
Tammy Lau, 1994.REVISION:
Bobby Jett, May 6, 1999, version WORD7.Your name, year»RBB»Biography
Begin text here:»The Reverend Edythe Stirlen, affectionately known as the "Little Minister," broadcast her sermons on the radio for over sixty years in Shenandoah, Iowa. One of the first ordained women ministers in the Midwest, Stirlen began her career at KFEQ in St. Joseph, Missouri, although she spent most of her career at KFNF and KMA in Shenandoah. From 1925 to the early 1980s Stirlen preached, sang hymns, and announced birthdays and anniversaries over the radio to her listeners all over the country. Although she was a member of and ordained in the Christian Church, her sermons were non-denominational. Her loyal followers were for the most part "shut-ins" and the elderly, who Stirlen tried to help with her upbeat message and cheerful programs. She also conducted hundreds of wedding ceremonies for couples on the radio and in her home throughout the years. Unlike many ministers at the time, Stirlen even married couples who had been previously divorced, believing that they deserved another chance.
Born near Cimarron, Kansas, to Samuel Hezekiah Elem and Plona Jane Camden Elem in 1895, Stirlen was the youngest of seven children. Her parents were homesteaders who traveled to western Kansas in a covered wagon and started out in a sod house, eventually progressing to a seven-room farmhouse. Stirlen likened her experience in radio to her parents' experience in Kansas: "I was a pioneer in radio like my father was a pioneer on the prairie. I guess pioneering runs in my blood."
Stirlen attended the University of Kansas at Lawrence and taught at a school until she met and married Joseph E. Swartz in 1920. They had three daughters, Josephine, Rosalee, and Wren. The marriage ended in divorce in 1927. To support her daughters, Stirlen played the organ in a church and gave elocution lessons. The girls had been sent to live with three aunts in different states but the family was reunited in 1930 when Stirlen married Carl J. Stirlen and moved to Shenandoah.
Edythe Stirlen was considered a talented singer who also played the guitar. During her career she received thousands of letters from across the country. Fans also visited her at the station and at her home. During the years that she held S.O.S. conventions in Shenandoah, thousands of people attended to meet the Little Minister. She also reached out to her followers through published prayer pamphlets, postcards and calendars.
In 1935 Stirlen started the S.O.S. (Send Out Sunshine) Signal, a monthly (later bimonthly) magazine for her "congregation." S.O.S. Signal, the second-oldest magazine
in Shenandoah (next to Kitchen Klatter), offered home remedies, recipes, advice, sermons, answers to letters, and news of various people and their families. It ended in 1981 when Stirlen retired.
In 1972 Stirlen organized a trip to Jerusalem for herself and eleven others. It was an apparent success for she said of the trip: "I still live in the after glow of that wonderful experience." In 1978, she published two books, The Little Minister's Devotional Selection and From the Land of the Tumbleweed: Tales of my Childhood, a collection of
humorous, autobiographical anecdotes, dedicated to shut-ins and the aged because "they have very little to laugh about."
Besides her radio work and ministerial duties, Stirlen was active in a hospital auxiliary, the Eastern Star, the White Shrine of Jerusalem, the Nautilus Club (a study club), and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. She also devoted much of her time to her church by visiting sick and aged members, singing in the choir, teaching Sunday school and substituting for the minister on occasion.
She died on September 17, 1987.
Scope and Content Note
Begin text here:»The Edythe Stirlen papers measure 4 linear feet and date from 1930 to 1981. The papers are arranged in three series: Biographical information, Radio broadcasts and Printed materials. They document one woman's work as a broadcast minister from the early days of radio to the 1980s. There is very little on her life outside of radio.
Biographical information (1934-1940, 1975-1980 and undated) contains some correspondence to Stirlen including a telegram informing Stirlen of her father's death as well as a memo from Earl May explaining why her program had been moved from one time slot to another. Additional newspaper articles about Stirlen and five scrapbooks, two of which commemorate her fiftieth year on the radio in 1975 with cards and letters from her fans are included.
The Radio broadcasts (1940-1975 and undated), which form a large part of the collection, are comprised mainly of Stirlen's typewritten sermons spanning over three decades. Each volume of the sermons was originally housed in a binder, some with an index. Some of the earlier sermons are mixed in with later ones, signifying that Stirlen re-used them. However, she kept careful track of when to use each sermon, as evidenced by her Schedule of sermons, 1971-1975. In the second folder of 1940-1942, volume 2, there are instructions and diagrams on how to conduct a wedding. A taped broadcast on audiocassette dates from November 15, 1974 on KFNF and lasts approximately thirty minutes.
Also included in the Radio broadcasts series are the prayers and birthday and anniversary announcements Stirlen read on the air.
S.O.S (Send Out Sunshine) Signal, the magazine that Stirlen began in 1935 to reach out to her listeners, is the main part of Printed materials (1939-1981 and undated). The four Bibles are personal copies of Stirlen's and contain clipped poems, cards,
photographs, and bookmarks. In one of the Bibles is a photograph of the group she took to Jerusalem in 1972 as well as the text she used for wedding ceremonies.
The two books that Stirlen wrote, From the Land of the Tumbleweed: Tales of my Childhood (1978) and The Little Minister's Devotional Selection (1978) are also included in Printed materials. The Promotional postcards and calendars show Stirlen and her family in various years, putting a human face to the voice for many of her listeners. Recipes and remedy includes published recipe pamphlets and a homemade folk remedy for rheumatism.
Box no. Description**PRESS <control e>1 to insert box number.**
**PRESS <control v>1-4 to insert series level 1-4.**
**PRESS <control v>a to insert series level 5.**
**PRESS <control v>6-9 to insert series level 6-9.**
Box 1
»Biographical information
Correspondence, 1934-1935, 1937-1938 and undated
Newspaper articles, 1979, 1980 and undated
Scrapbooks
1931-1937
Newspaper clippings scrapbook
Items removed from scrapbook
Newspaper clippings, 1937-1938, 1940 and undated
Miscellaneous, 1930-1933, 1938 and undated
Photographs, undated
Box 2
1938 and undated
Magazine clippings and correspondence scrapbook
1975 (May 4), fiftieth anniversary on radio
Volume 1
Volume 2
Undated
Poems
Box 3
Radio broadcasts
Sermons
1940-1941
Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3
1940-1942
Volume 1
Volume 2 (2 folders)
Box 4
1940-1948 (2 folders)
1940-1956 (Christmas-New Year's)
1941-1942
Volume 1
Volume 2
1942
1945
1945-1946
Box 51946
Volume 1
Volume 2
1946-1948
1947
1947-1949
1948 (2 folders)
Box 6
1949
1949, 1953
1952-1954
1954-1958 (2 folders)
1955
Volume 1
Volume 2 (2 folders)
Box 7
1956-1958 (2 folders)
1959-1960
1960
1961 (2 folders)
1962
Box 8
1962-1963 (2 folders)
1964-1965
1966-1967
1968-1969
1969-1970
Volume 1 (2 folders)
Box 9
Volume 2
1969-1970 (2 folders)
1971-1973 (2 folders)
1971-1975 (2 folders)
Schedule of sermons, 1971-1975
Taped broadcast, November 15, 1974, KFNF, ca. 30 minutes [shelved in audiocassette collection: AC124]
Box 10
Prayers
General
Volume 1, undated
Volume 2, undated (3 folders)
Thanksgiving, undated
Various occasions, undated
Box 11
Announcements
General, undated (3 folders)
Birthdays and anniversaries (in calendar books)
1971
1972
Box 12
Printed materials
Bibles (4)
Books
From the Land of the Tumbleweed: Tales of my Childhood (1978)
The Little Minister's Devotional Selection (1978)
Box 13
Hymns
Forty Gospel Hymn Stories (George W. Sanville, 1945)
Sheet music and hymns
Undated
Christmas, undated
Folder 1
Folder 2 [shelved in map case: drawer 4]
"Stories of Famous Hymns" and hymns, undated
Prayer pamphlets, undated
Promotional postcards and calendars, 1934, 1935, 1947, 1948, 1952 and undated
Recipes and remedy, undated
Religious tracts, undated
Box 14
S.O.S Signal
April 1935-October 1939
November 1939-December 1940
January 1941-October 1942
November 1942-June 1944
January 1945-December 1946
January 1947-December 1948
Box 15
January 1949-November 1950
January 1951-February/March 1953
April/May 1953-April/May 1956
June/July 1956-February/March 1959
April/May 1959-February/March 1962
April/May 1962-December 1964/January 1965
February/March 1965-October/November 1967
Box 16
December 1967/January 1968-December 1970/January 1971
February/March 1971-October/November 1973
December 1972/January 1973-April/May 1977
June/July 1977-October/November 1981
[Jamestho.FTW]
Listed on death Cert of Carl James Stirlen as Rev. Edythe StirlenListed on death Cert of Carl James Stirlen as Rev. Edythe Stirlen
SS# 478-16-0404
Chemist of Button Company
Burial at Greenwood Cemetery, Muscatine, IA[Jamestho.FTW]SS# 478-16-0404
Chemist of Button Company
Burial at Greenwood Cemetery, Muscatine, IA
SS# 342-20-3114
Burial at Greenwood Cemt, Muscatine, IA
Worked at Muscatine Journal as switchboard operator[Jamestho.FTW]SS# 342-20-3114
Burial at Greenwood Cemt, Muscatine, IA
Worked at Muscatine Journal as switchboard operator
[Jamestho.FTW]
Died of Cancer Information from Eugene D Stirlen II.