Biography

Isabella Lowry Bever was born in Carroll County, Ohio, in 1856. She was one of four daughters born to Minerva Coyan Bever and Henry Vaughn Bever. The family moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, shortly after the death of Minerva Bever in 1875. After her father’s death in 1880, Belle Bever lived with her sister Myrtilla and brother-in-law Edward Foster.

In 1897 Bever worked as society editor for two Cedar Rapids newspapers, The Evening Times and The Republican, and for the next 35 years she pursued a career in journalism. After the two newspapers merged into The Cedar Rapids Gazette in 1928, she continued as the Cedar Rapids correspondent for The Des Moines Register. She moved to Des Moines in 1936 where she lived with her niece until her death in 1937. Bever was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Cedar Rapids. No obituary survives.

[Based on biographical information provided by Belle Bever’s great-great niece, Margaret Fones Zimmerman.]

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