Ruth Davis Kohrt

Ruth Davis Kohrt (1921–2012) was a regional author from Northwest Iowa. She was born into the pioneer family of George and Sadie (Merrill) Davis of Webb, IA. George lost the farm in the Depression, but Ruth was able to graduate from both Iowa State Teachers College and Augustana College. She went on to a 42-year career in Iowa and Minnesota schools, teaching in settings from one-room elementary schools through town high school. As school librarian and English teacher, she founded five school and town libraries. After she retired, wrote novels and memoirs.

Her writing is characterized by speech, mannerisms and character of people in Northwest Iowa. "Nine Months at $90" (1997) <ISBN 0-9659748-4-7> tells how she earned $90 and spent $100 teaching in her first year of teaching in a one-room school, where she commuted on a horse. "Armon’s Apples" (1998) <ISBN 09659748-20> tells the story of her pioneer grandfather, his travels from upstate New York, and his homesteading at the age of fourteen near Webb, Iowa. Her novel "From a Test Tube with Love" (1999) <ISBN 0-7414-0160-6> explains what happens when two people, born of different surrogate mothers, apply for a marriage license. "Stella’s Statue" (2003) <ISBN 1-4107-2702-5> is the story of a pioneer woman who founds a town and holds it together. Her memoir "Notes from a Depression Girl" (2006) <ISBN 0977022080> depicts rural life during the Great Depression and tells how families “made do.” She died on April 13, 2012, in Des Moines, IA <Des Moines Register, obituary page, April 17, 2012, http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/desmoinesregister/obituary-search.aspx?daterange=180&firstname=Ruth&lastname=Kohrt&countryid=1&stateid=15&affiliateid=1740>James Hercules Sutton 04:02, 8 September 2012 (UTC)James H. Sutton