SLATTERY, Doris

Photo courtesy: Dubuque Advertiser

SLATTERY, Doris. (Zwingle, IA, Feb. 14, 1916-Dubuque, IA, Mar. 23, 2013). Raised by a paternal grandfather after the death of her parents in 1918 during a flu epidemic, Slattery rode the narrow gauge train to La Motte to attend high school. A graduate of the UNIVERSITY OF DUBUQUE in 1933, she taught two years at a rural school in Jackson County in a classroom with thirty-three students in grades kindergarten through eighth. She earned fifty dollars per month. In 1965 Slattery taught the first Head Start class in the city of Dubuque. A teacher with the DUBUQUE COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT from 1950 to 1980, Slattery retired as "Mother Audubon" from AUDUBON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.

Slattery attended a World Conference on Aging in Vienna, Austria, in 1983. One year later she was one of one hundred chosen as a United States Ambassador to make the initial visit to Russia. She served four years as assistant state director of the American Association of Retired Persons before being appointed state director of AARP in 1989.

Slattery served three years as the state coordinator of the Retired Teachers Association, president of the CARNEGIE-STOUT PUBLIC LIBRARY Board from 1984 to 1986, and served on three medical missions with Dubuque doctors and nurses.

In 1988 Slattery spent two months in Quito, Ecuador, where she assisted at the Working Boys Center and introduced a mini special education program. Her volunteer work with such a mission in Haiti was the subject of a 1990 article in the TELEGRAPH HERALD. She has served as a volunteer at the Mercy Health Center, FINLEY HOSPITAL (THE), STONEHILL CARE CENTER, Dubuque Leisure Services, Nativity parish, and the Carnegie-Stout Public Library.

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Source:

http://www.dubuquetoday.com/obituaries.cfm