Bertha Raffetto (March 15, 1885 – September 6, 1952) is best known for her song, "

Home Means Nevada "Home Means Nevada" is the state anthem of the U.S. state of Nevada. It was written by Bertha Rafetto in 1932 and officially adopted by the Nevada Legislature in 1933 as the official List of U.S. state songs, state song. Lyrics Way out in the la ...

", which is the official

state song Forty-eight of the fifty U.S. states have one or more state songs, a type of regional anthem, which are selected by each state legislature as a symbol (or emblem) of that particular U.S. state. Some U.S. states have more than one official state ...

for

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

Biography

Bertha Eaton was born in

Bloomfield, Iowa Bloomfield is a city in Davis County, Iowa, United States. The population was 2,682 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Davis County. Geography Bloomfield is located in the southeastern part of Iowa, near the Missouri border. Bloomfiel ...

, March 15, 1885. She was the daughter of Enoch Henry and Susan Frances Walker Eaton. During the 1930s, Raffetto had a poetry column in the ''Nevada State Journal'' that was a popular feature. During the summer of 1932, the Nevada Native Daughters invited her to sing a Nevada song of her choice at their annual picnic in August of that year. She recalled that years earlier she had attempted to write a song about Nevada, but had set it aside. Raffetto assembled her earlier notes and reworked the song the day before she was to give her performance. The following afternoon she sang her song "Home Means Nevada" from her hand written script. In the audience was former Nevada governor Roswell K. Colcord who told her afterwards, "Honey, that's the prettiest Nevada song that I have ever heard. It should be made the State Song of Nevada!" She married Henry Clyde Hough, whom she later divorced. Later she married her Reno divorce attorney, Fiore Raffetto.

References

1885 births 1952 deaths Songwriters from Iowa People from Bloomfield, Iowa {{US-songwriter-stub