Time has diminished the fame of Grace Noll Crowell, a poet and writer of more than thirty-five books who began her career at Farmington in 1906.

Considered today as a minor poet, Crowell was international known in the 1930s and was selected by the America Publishers as one of the ten outstanding American Women of 1938. In the early 1940s she was called "the most popular writer of verse in America."

Born at Inland, Iowa, on October 31, 1877, the daughter of Adam and Sarah Noll, Grace received her college education from the German-English College in Wilton, Iowa. She married Norman Crowell after she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1901.

Norman and Grace moved to Farmington a few years after they were married and lived at 404 Oak Street. He worked as a bank teller at the Exchange Bank, and she as a housewife and mother.

Shortly after their arrival, Grace became ill. Despite receiving the finest medical care from Farmington's best physicians and nurses, and with her health not improving, she was ready to accept her life as an invalid.

Not wanting to be a burden to her family, she decided the only thing she could do to help her young family was to become a writer.

Her first poem, "The Marshland," was written in Farmington while she was recovering from her illness. Many other poems soon followed and were published in the popular periodicals of the day.

The Crowells moved to Sioux City, Iowa, where her health improved, and then in 1917 on to Wichita Falls, Texas, and two years later to Dallas, Texas where she spent the rest of her life.

Her first book of poetry "White Fire," which was published in 1925, received first prize from the Texas Poetry Society. In 1936 she was appointed poet laureate of Texas, a position she held for three years. She was awarded the Golden Scroll Medal of Honor as National Honor Poet in 1938. That same year she was designated American Mother of the Year by the Golden Rule Foundation, and American Woman, a biographical publication, selected her as one of the ten Outstanding American Women. Baylor University awarded her an honorary doctorate degree in 1940.

She was so popular it was necessary for Norman to quit his job to manage her writing career. Thousands of pieces of correspondence from grateful readers needed to be answered and hundreds of visitors from all parts of the United States and Europe who visited her at her Dallas home needed to be received.

Crowell wrote books of poetry, stories for children, and poem and prose devotions. Lee Mero illustrated several of her children’s books. Her "Songs of Courage" went into twenty-five printings. She continued writing until she was 86 years old. "God's Masterpieces," a devotional book was her last published work before her death.

Grace Noll Crowell died on March 31, 1969, at age 92, and is buried at Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery, in Dallas, Texas.

"Let the Sun Shine In" was published posthumously in 1970. In 1977 a reprint of her 1965 collection of poems appeared as "The Eternal Things: The Best of Grace Noll Crowell."

By Grace Noll Crowell

Little, lovely, friendly town

Bright beneath your maple trees -

With your dooryards sending out

Lilac scent upon the breeze;

Through the hurried years, I trust,

In the changes you have made

That you kept your dooryards sweet,

Kept your arching trees for shade;

Kept the friendliness I knew

In the olden, golden days -

Kept your hands in welcome out,

Kept your neighborly, fine ways;

With your home lamps and your fires

Glowing out upon each street

For the stranger in your midst

Passing by on lonely feet;

Kept your small-town sympathy -

Kept your laughter and your tears...

Have you kept them, little town

Through these difficult, hard years?

If you have, I think some day,

Like a magnet strong and true,

You will reach across the miles

And will draw me back to you.