Fischer's Northern Illinois State Teachers College (NISTC) school books: Geography Notebook, Winter 1930-1931

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Elsa Ann Fischer was born September 13, 1911. She graduated from Dixon High School [where future President Ronald Reagan also attended] in 1929. In the fall of that year she traveled to DeKalb to begin classes at the Northern Illinois State Teachers College. During her four years at Northern she participated in Orchestra and String Quartet, the Geography Club, Williston Hall girls, and was a member of Nu Iota Pi. While attending NISTC she met Robert Cameron Browne, who attended the school for two years. They married on January 20, 1940. [Robert taught for several years in Erie and Rock Falls, Illinois and then went to work for Northwestern Steel and Wire Company as a metallurgist, and later became superintendent of plant operations.] Following her graduation from Northern in 1933, Elsa worked in an office for two years, taught in a rural school for one year, and at Stillman Valley Community High School for four years. After her marriage she gave up teaching. Elsa was well known in the Sterling and Rock Falls areas from her participation in the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, Republican Party politics, and church activities. Her husband Robert died August 1, 1979. Elsa Browne resided in Rock Falls, Illinois in 2004. The materials in this collection were donated by her niece Phyllis E. Kurzrock in May 2004.