Marian Niehaus - 1905-1987

NIEHAUS, DAYTON, MAXWELL, STRAYER

Posted By: Connie Ellis (email)
Date: 2/20/2011 at 22:43:56

SOURCE: Waukon, Iowa WAUKON REPUBLICAN-STANDARD, June 9, 1987
Contributor: Connie Ellis (Not related)

Memorial services will be held for Marian Niehaus at St. Paul's Methodist Church in Waukon, Iowa at 2 p.m. Wednesday, June 10. She died at the Western Home in Cedar Falls, Iowa on June 8, 1987 after a short illness. Her body, at her wish, has been donated to scientific research purposes.

Marian was born in Waukon, Iowa on January 2, 1905. Following graduation from Waukon High School, she attended Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, graduating with the class of 1926. Later she completed a master's degree in physical education at The University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. Her physical education career began in the Mount Vernon High School, Wichita, Kansas High School and then Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa. In 1936, the same year that she attended the Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, she took the position of associate professor at Illinois Wesleyan University at Bloomington, Illinois. She was later appointed director of women's physical education and was sponsor of the Women's Sports Association and the University Swim Club until her retirement. This fall (1987) when a new building, the Fort Natatorium is completed, a faculty office will be named the Marian Niehaus Faculty Office in her honor.

She was preceded in death by her parents William H. and Ruby (Dayton) Niehaus who lived in Waukon, Iowa and one brother, Dayton Niehaus.

Survivors include two sisters, Marjorie Maxwell of Tipton, Iowa and Ruth Strayer of Hudson, Iowa; 4 nieces; 5 nephews; also grandnieces and grandnephews.

NOTE OF THE TRANSCRIBER:
The 1936 Summer Olympics, which Marian attended in Berlin, Germany, would have been the Olympic Year that Jesse Owens achieved international fame by winning 4 gold medals in track events. It was also controversial, because Adolf Hitler, not wanting to shake the hand of a Black man, refused to attend the medals presentation. The obituary does not mention if she was a spectator during any of the events run by Jesse Owens, but we can probably assume that she was part of that historical event -- how exciting that must have been!