Kathleen Conboy Dougherty (1923-2020)

DOUGHERTY

Posted By: Ken Wright (email)
Date: 5/5/2020 at 16:31:08

Kathleen Conboy Dougherty died at St. Crispin Living Community, Red Wing, Minn., on Wednesday, April 15, 2020, after a brief illness. She was born in Volga City, the daughter of John (Jack) Conboy and Anna Samp Conboy, July 6, 1923. At the age of 11, they moved to Strawberry Point, and she graduated from that high school in 1940.

She attended Iowa State Teachers College (now UNI) for two years, taught third grade in Greeley from 1942 to 1944 and third grade in Anamosa from 1945 to 1949. She married Neal Dougherty in 1948. They had a son, James, in 1949, and a daughter, Marybess, in 1951. She was a “stay-at-home mom” until 1956 when she returned to the Anamosa school system as a fourth-grade teacher. After obtaining a B.A. degree at the University of Iowa, she started the junior high library and taught eighth grade reading for one year. In 1964, she became the Anamosa High School librarian, a position she held for twenty years.

She was grateful for some exceptional personal bonuses – getting a college degree at 40 years of age, being invited to be a homecoming parade marshal, teaching at all three levels of the Anamosa school system, the retirement roast thanks to Marg Hummel and “trodding the boards” with Starlighters.