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Iva's nephew, Robert W. Bishop, remembered that "when the depression hit Iva remained with the Bethlehem Foundry and Machine Co which was right next door to the Bethlehem Steel plant. Unfortunately, she was demoted to a clerk's position and remained there until she retired."

"She had very good taste in things and twice yearly made forays to New York and Philadelphia to buy from John Wannamaker and Strawbridge & Clothier. An odd thing about her was that she had bought so many pairs of shoes (shades of Imelda Marcos) that from the time of the start of the Great Depression until she died - about 30 some years - she never bought another pair, but was able to bring out new shoes every couple of years. She was very generous, yet very opinionated. My father told me that her father was a short man who took to wearing very tall stove-pipe hats a la Abraham Lincoln. He said it was a very comical thing to see him at work in a ditch because you couldn't see him, but his tall hat poked up and down as he walked in the ditch."