Anne Michael Tama 2019 Citizen of the Year

“What do you think when nine firefighters and a fire truck roll up to your house on a Friday night and you’re on your hands and knees covered in dirt in the garden in the backyard,” Anne Michael asks.

Well, she soon found out- it was members of the Tama Firefighters Association who had just picked her from the nominations submitted as 2019 Tama Citizen of the Year.

“I was surprised…and feel very, very honored,” she says.

She is the 38th Tama resident for the honor to be bestowed upon. Michael will be recognized at the Tama Fire Station during the Lincoln Highway Bridge Festival on Friday evening at 7 p.m. and in the Grand Parade on Saturday morning at 10 a.m. in downtown Tama.

The honor even goes a bit deeper for Michael. She joins her mother, the late Bess Ingles, a Tama city clerk, businessperson, and mayor, who was the 1989 Tama Citizen of the Year.

“When I was young I couldn’t understand why she and others cared so much for this community,” she says. ” Now I understand.”

Anne is being recognized for her work and leadership over the years in the Tama Oak Hill Cemetery Association, Toledo-Tama Kiwanis, and the Tama County Historical Preservation Commission.

She has been instrumental in the effort to preserve Tama’s Lincoln Highway Bridge which is listed on the National Historic Register and from which this weekend’s annual festival gets its name.

Anne became something of a fixture at Tama City Council keeping attention on the necessity to fund rehabilitation of the bridge structure. This led to grants, donations and city funding topping $100,000 which will pay for the restoration work.

She is currently the lead advocate for gaining National Historic District designation for the King Tower area on Tama’s east side, located along the Lincoln Highway route.

Tama Native

A native of Tama, Anne is a graduate of Tama High School. She received a bachelor’s degree in Speech and Drama with a minor in English from the University of Iowa and earned a master’s degree in English from the University of Northern Iowa.

She taught English in Postville and Gilman and then for over 30 years was a South Tama High School English teacher.

Her two sons, Tim (Teresa), Marshalltown, and Joe, Urbandale, both work for Emerson (Fisher.)

Anne says she broke two rules a new teacher is supposed to follow: “You aren’t supposed to smile for at least three months and I always smile because I love teaching. You aren’t supposed to teach in your hometown. I did because I love Tama.”