Biography

Myrtilla "Myrt" F. Levin was born in Des Moines, Iowa in 1938, to parents Myrtilla and Red Fones. She graduated from Roosevelt High School and Drake University in Des Moines with a B.A. in English. Levin then worked as a public school teacher in Des Moines for two years. She married Jack D. Levin and lived with him in Newton, Iowa, where she served twelve years in a variety of local volunteer groups and was lay leader at her Episcopal Church. The couple had three children: Jack, Stacy, and Ann.

Levin was Jasper County Republican Party Chairman in 1972 and 1973, an alternate to the 1972 Republican National Convention, and a member of the state Republican Party Platform Committee in 1974. In 1973 she was elected to a two-year term as mayor of Newton, a post she held through 1975. After leaving office Levin served as head of the Newton Chamber of Commerce and later was executive director of the Des Moines Young Women's Christian Association. In 1986 she became a founding director of the newly created Iowa Business Council. Levin supported rail transportation in Iowa through her involvement in the state-backed purchase of the Rock Island tracks by a group of shippers, and also participated in the Iowa Confidential Records Council and the Greater Des Moines Community Foundation, among many other volunteer commitments.

Levin's husband Jack passed away in 2006, and she later married Tom Stephepnson. Myrt Levin passed away in 2026.

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