LYONS, Ella B.

Photo courtesy: Telegraph Herald

LYONS, Ella B. (Petersburg, IL--Dubuque, IA, Nov. 13, 1940). Throughout her thirty-one years of living in Dubuque, Ella Lyons was involved in many civic responsibilities including PEO and the DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. It was, however, her desire to see Dubuque as a center of flowers for which she is generally remembered.

Ella organized the DUBUQUE CIVIC GARDEN CLUB to encourage private gardens throughout the city and was also with her husband Edwin B. LYONS the originator of the PEONY TRAIL. In 1932 she was contributor of a column in the Telegraph-Herald and Times-Journal entitled "Beauty Spots in and Around Dubuque." (1) She was also active in the COMMUNITY CHEST and the Dubuque chapter of the American Red Cross.

Ella came to Dubuque in 1909 with her husband Edwin B. LYONS. One of her first civic projects was the organization of the Dubuque branch of the Girls Friendly Society of America. Although always headquartered in ST. JOHN'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH it was not limited to that church in membership. (2)

Her organization of the Garden Club led in three years to the development of 1,900 private flower gardens in the city. An outgrowth of this was the annual flower show. The Club also sponsored garden schools in which experts from state institutions brought gardening lessons to interested citizens. She was also responsible for the development of a separate rose garden as part of the public park system. At the time of her death, she was the regional director of the State Federation of Garden Clubs of Iowa. (3)

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Source:

1. "Gardens and Beauty Spots in and Around Dubuque," Telegraph-Herald and Times-Journal, August 7, 1932, p. 10

2. "Garden Club's Founder Dies; Rites Friday," Telegraph Herald, November 13, 1940, p. 1A

3. Ibid.