Youngberg, Eva Mae Struckmeyer (1930-) | University of Illinois Archives

Eva Mae Struckmeyer Youngberg was born in Cottage Grove, Wisconsin in March 1930. In 1948, she moved to Madison, Wisconsin to attend the University of Wisconsin, where she was a member of the Women's Chorus, Badger Band, W.H.A. Minnesingers, Sigma Alpha Iota Sorority, and worked as a piano instructor. After graduating in 1951, Struckmeyer worked as a high school choral director. In 1962, she became the president of the Wisconsin Chapter of Music Educators National Conference and later served as a delegate for the North Central Division for the National Interscholastic Music Activities Commission, a division of the Music Educators National Conference, in 1965. In 1973, she was the Director of Choral Activities at Horace Mann Middle School in Wausau, Wisconsin, and the National Junior High Chairman for ACDA. She published her article, "An Approach to "Avant Garde" Music for the Beginner" in the October 1973 Choral Journal. That same year, she was awarded with the Wisconsin Music Educator's Michael G. George Distinguished Service Award. In 1976, she presented a session called "Music for Tweeners" at the ACDA national convention. In the summer of 1981, she was named a Distinguished Faculty Member of the Choral Director's Workshop.

Eva Mae married Harold C. Youngberg, a gifted choral conductor from Oakland, California. Youngberg graduated from Northwestern University with his bachelors and masters in music. After working in Wisconsin, he began conducting the choral music ensembles within the Oakland Public School District in Oakland, California. From 1955-1957, he served as the president of the California Music Educators Association and from 1964-166 he was the second vice president of the Music Educators National Conference. Youngberg was a co-author of Making Music Your Own.