WATERLOO - Some Cedar Valley-area state legislators are reviving an effort to get a Waterloo woman's song recognized on a par with the official Iowa state song.

State Rep. Deborah Berry, D-Waterloo, said she and Reps. Don Shoultz, D-Waterloo and Bob Kressig, D-Cedar Falls, are reviving a resolution to get Waterloo singer/songwriter Effie Burt's "I'll Make Me a World in Iowa" recognized as the companion to Iowa's state song, "Song of Iowa," which was written by S.H.M. Byers in about 1911. State Rep. Willard Jenkins, R-Waterloo, also said he will support the measure.

"We're working tirelessly to keep our kids from leaving Iowa. I think her song tells a story of how you don't have to leave Iowa to make your world," Berry said of Burt's composition. "You could make it right here, because there's a good educational system, the beautiful four seasons, the good jobs and a great place to raise a family."

Former State Sens. Pat Harper, D-Waterloo, and Don Redfern, R-Cedar Falls, introduced a similar resolution the Iowa Senate passed in 2002. Shoultz and State Sen. Bill Dotzler, D-Waterloo, then a representative, backed the measure in the House, but it has since languished there.

Burt said she wrote the song in 2000 for the annual I'll Make Me a World Festival, an annual African-American cultural event in Des Moines.

Also at that time, Burt said, "My daughter was in Baltimore, she wasn't completely satisfied with her education, and so I asked her would she come back here and finish her master's degree and make her world in Iowa. And basically she did that." Her daughter, Telisa Burt, is now executive director of the Jesse Cosby Neighborhood Center in Waterloo.

"I also thought of diversity," Burt said. "We have in our state a lot of different cultures and to me, if every culture believes they can have a place to make them a world here in Iowa, it would only seem to me to make Iowa a greater state, with many opportunities for all people."

Burt is a native of Oxford, Miss., home of the University of Mississippi. She retired in March from John Deere's Waterloo operations after 27 years' service. She also is a popular local entertainer and has performed in a number of venues. She's performed "I'll Make Me a World In Iowa" at Waterloo Mayor Tim Hurley's swearing-in ceremony, and at functions at the Iowa Statehouse. She'll sing it again at the "I'll Make Me a World in Iowa" festival in Des Moines Saturday. Other performers include artists from Say Yes 2 Poetry and the Waterloo Museum of Art.

If the House passes the resolution, Berry hopes to have Burt perform her song in the House chamber as that body gavels into session.

Contact Pat Kinney at (319) 291-1484 or Pat.Kinney@wcfcourier.com