Learning about Iska

In processing small manuscripts at the Cape County Historical Society Research Annex, I come across many collections about people I wish I had time to explore. Thanks to Alice Ireland of the Research Annex for helping pull together this information about one of Cape Girardeau's own daughters, who appears to have been a very independent woman.

Iska Louise Whitelaw Carmack was born June 29, 1887, to Rodney Gayoso Whitelaw (1859-1922) and Katie Melissa Rodney (1855-1908). She had two siblings, Nellie Rodney (1885-1888) and Barrett Rodney (1890-1947).

Iska is a descendent of Louis Lorimier through the marriage of his daughter, Marie Louise (1787-1811), to Thomas Smith Rodney (1788-1825), two of the oldest families in Cape Girardeau. Her father and mother were both descendants of branches of the Rodney family, making them cousins.

Her father served as councilman and one-term mayor (1903-1907) for the City of Cape Girardeau and was famous for the Cape Fair. Rodney Whitelaw had a large, brick home constructed on the corner of Middle and Bellevue streets in 1920, just a few blocks from their first house on Pacific Street.

Iska graduated from Forest Park University, a college for women, in 1906. The 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis forced Iska to give up her apartment for the summer to allow it to be rented to visitors of the fair. In 1911, she married Franklin Carmack Jr., and they set up residence in St. Louis. Their daughter, Rodney Whitelaw Carmack, was born in 1912 and would take her mother's love of preserving the family history to the next level, becoming a professional genealogist.

In 1914, Iska divorced Franklin and never remarried. It's unclear as to when Iska moved to California, but in 1922 she returned from there to Cape Girardeau to move her father to Colorado due to his failing health. After her father passed away in August 1922, Iska loaded her daughter into a Model T Ford and drove back to Los Angeles by herself.

In 1937, Iska purchased the Rodney house, located off East Rodney Drive in Cape Girardeau, along with what was known as Rodney Acres. The original Rodney Acres was comprised of 180 acres purchased by Thomas Jefferson Rodney in 1811. Some confusion surrounds the date of the house's construction, but it is most likely antebellum. The house was remodeled by Iska and future owners, preventing it from getting on the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1942, Iska took the city of Cape Girardeau to court over the city's attempt to put a post office on the land where the Common Pleas Courthouse is located and eventually won the case.

Iska's brother, Barrett, became a Hollywood film star after returning from World War I. Her daughter, Rodney, married Frederick Reade Jueneman in 1938 and raised two sons, Robert and Donald. Iska continued to be active in Cape Girardeau organizations, selling and buying property and working on the Lorimier/Rodney genealogy. She traveled often, always returning to Rodney Acres. She died Oct. 17, 1958, leaving behind a legacy that would have made her ancestors proud.