“Home” Means Nevada was adopted as the Nevada State Song by the Nevada Legislature on February 6, 1933. The composer, Bertha Eaton Raffetto (1885-1952), was a native of Bloomfield, Iowa, but came to love Nevada as her ‘own’ and her true home. According to her daughter, Frances McDonald, “In view of all the places my mother both visited and lived in for varying lengths of time, I have no doubt mother felt and meant it when she said, ‘Home Means Nevada’”.
Mrs. Raffetto was a student of literature and a gifted poet, fiction writer, singer, and composer. She participated in multiple civic groups in the Reno area as well as being active in politics. Raffetto was elected national historian by the National League of American Pen Women in April of 1951, winning national recognition for herself and Nevada, achieving a cherished goal in the field of writing. (Nevada State Journal 1952)
The Nevada State Library is fortunate to have in its’ collections Mrs. Raffetto’s notes about how the State Song came to be. The notes provide an entertaining account of the creative planning process and the reality of one’s competing social calendar and obligations. “…I had scarcely assembled my old notes, when unexpected…and very welcome…house guests arrived.” She recounts, “Two weeks of fun passed by, and on the morning my guests were leaving, I read with consternation…that the Native Daughter’s picnic was to be celebrated the next day—and not one note of that song I had promised to sing, had been written!” 
To read Mrs. Raffetto’s notes in full, you can access the stored digital copy through our library’s online catalog.
As we celebrate this year’s Nevada Day with the theme “Home Means Nevada” may we appreciate the woman who penned this phrase and provided us with our cherished State Song.
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