Piece of History: Grant Wood got married then divorced nearly four years later – The Gazette

By Tara Templeman, The History Center

It was a Saturday March 2, 1935 that the Cedar Rapids Gazette reported artists Grant Wood and Sara Sherman Maxon were to be married that night in Minneapolis.

Maxon was at least seven years older than Wood who was 44 at the time and an artist in her own right, as well as a singer, teacher and pioneer in regional music.

The two were married at the home of Maxons son and daughter-in-law with no guests in attendance.

Both had been born in Jones County, and Maxon had two sisters in Cedar Rapids, Mrs. Edward W. Haman and Mrs. Glenn Averill.

Recent publications have debated the circumstances around Woods short-lived and perhaps platonic marriage, but we know their friends disapproved of the union.

Shortly after the marriage, Wood left his comfortable home at 5 Turner Alley in Cedar Rapids. The couple bought and renovated a home at 1142 E. Court St. in Iowa City. Just seven months after the marriage, Woods mother, Hattie. died.

Wood and Maxon divorced in 1939 after less than four years of marriage. Wood died of cancer a few years later, in 1942, at age 50.

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Tara Templeman is curator at The History Center. Comments: curator@historycenter.org

By Tara Templeman, The History Center

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Piece of History: Grant Wood got married then divorced nearly four years later - The Gazette