Catharine Strouse was born in Naperville, Illinois in 1878.
She took a bachelor's degree from the Minnesota State
Normal School in Winona and her master's from
Northwestern University. She taught at Manitowoc and
later at Wausaw, Wisconsin before joining the faculty at
the Kansas State Normal School (now Emporia State
University), where she taught from 1910 to 1949. She
served as president of KMEA and of the Southwestern
Division of MENC. She was one of the first people in the
country to teach music by radio. She was the author of
the Radio Classroom musical series in four volumes and
has published books and articles on music and music
education. She served as guest lecturer at the
University of California and at the University of
Wisconsin.