Home economics teacher Jane Greimann also served in the Iowa State House of Representatives. Photo credit: Iowa State Legislature
There are many exceptional educators who have gone on to successful careers in political office. One of these was Jane Greimann, a teacher who was elected to the Iowa State House of Representatives.
Jane was born on Jan. 25, 1942, on her family’s farm in Klemme, Iowa. After her high school graduation from Klemme High School in 1960, Jane enrolled at Iowa State University, where he completed courses in Home Economics. Immediately after graduating in 1964, she married Lowell Greimann, and the couple moved to Boulder, Colorado, where Jane worked as a seamstress and office worker. She gave birth to her first son there. Later the couple moved to San Antonio, Texas, where she worked with members of the Hispanic community and low-income adults. She gave birth to her second son there. In 1973 the couple returned to Iowa, where Jane adopted a little Vietnamese girl in 1975.
In 1980, Jane completed the requirements for her teaching certificate and accepted a position teaching art, health, and family and consumer science at Nevada Junior High school in Nevada, Iowa, where she taught for 16 years. During these years, she worked on studies of student health related to cholesterol and helped to start a breakfast program. She taught parenting classes and made a five-week trip to Russia in 1992. She also became a board member for the Eastern Story County Youth and Shelter Services. She retired from teaching in 1998.
In 1998, Jane was elected on the Democratic ticket to serve in the Iowa House of Representatives. From 1999 to 2005 she represented first District 61 and then District 45. While there, she served on the Committees for Public Education Funding; Human Services; Environment; Judiciary; Human Resources; and Natural Resources. She also served on the Mid-Iowa Community Action Board and the Hawk-I-State Board. Jane believed passionately in establishing more preventive programs and enacting more humane sentencing laws in our corrections system.
After leaving the House, served as the President of the local chapter of the League of Women Voters; as a Democratic caucus organizer; as a member of the Ames Public Art Commission; and as a member of the Education and Prevention Board of Youth and Shelter Services.
Sadly, Jane Greimann succumbed to lung cancer on Feb. 4, 2006. She was 64 years old. She was interred at Iowa State University Cemetery. Following her passing, the central committee of the Story County chapter of the Iowa Democratic Party honored the former teacher by placing a brick in the Plaza of Heroines outside of the university’s Catt Hall.
