Idael Makeever | |
---|---|
Born | December 7, 1867 Porter County, Indiana, U.S. |
Died | August 23, 1954 (aged 86) Loveland, Colorado, U.S. |
Nationality | American |
Other names | Ida E. Childers, Ida Makeever |
Occupations |
|
Idael Childers Makeever (December 7, 1867 – August 23, 1954) was an American poet, songwriter, journalist and clubwoman.
Idael Childers was born in 1867, in Porter County, Indiana,[1][2] and educated in Valparaiso, the daughter of George Childers and Tryphena Ida Childers. Her father was a businessman, and her mother was born in Canada.[3] After she was married and had two children in Nebraska, she returned to Indiana to take courses at Valparaiso University.[4]
Makeever taught school in Indiana for several years as a young woman.[3] She published two books of her poetry: Prairie Flowers and Meadow Grasses (1889) and Golden Rod and Dialect Poems (1898).[1] She read her poem "Nebraska" at the Trans-Mississippi Exposition in Omaha, in 1898.[1] Makeever's poem "I'm Going Home" was included in a 1902 collection of Indiana writers' works.[5] "She took up the unsung themes of the West," commented one profile in 1902.[4] "In the broad prairies," noted another, "her poetic nature blossomed and flowered, and the notes of her songs mingled with the music of the meadowlark."[6] Makeever was an active member of the Western Association of Writers.[7][8]
Makeever also wrote song lyrics, including "The Dream Face" (1909, music by Blanche M. Tice).[9] During World War I, she worked as a reporter for Omaha newspapers. During World War II, she was a newspaper columnist in Colorado, and worked at Hill Air Force Base in Utah.[10]
Idael Makeever married lawyer and mining executive Milton Alexander Makeever in 1889; with him, she moved to Stromsburg, Nebraska, where their two daughters, Merle and Iva Lee, were born in 1889 and 1894.[3] She moved to Boulder, Colorado in 1902,[1] while her husband was working at a gold mine in Mexico.[3] She was widowed in 1940, and she died in 1954, aged 86 years, in Loveland, Colorado.[11] Her papers are archived at Valparaiso University in Indiana.[3]
Idael Makeever.