Jeanne L'Strange Cappel

Jeanne Marie Strange was born in Dundas, Minnesota, the daughter of Edward Strange (1842–1908) and Laura (or Lauraette) Sargent Strange (1846–1937).[1] She was described as being a member of the Chippewa (Ojibwe) people,[2][3] and recalled a Chippewa grandmother in her presentations.[4] She graduated from the University of Southern California.[5][6]

Cappel was a physical education teacher and playground director in Los Angeles.[7] She wrote two volumes of Chippewa Tales (1928, 1930), retellings of traditional stories,[8] and The Mother You Gave Me (1941), a novel, with Beatrice Phillips Cole.[9] She was a founding member[10][11] and president of the American Indian Woman's History and Art Club,[12][13][14] and wrote, directed, and acted in a play, Out of the Past, performed by the club in 1933.[15] The club required active members to have Indian ancestry.[16]

Cappel gave lectures on American Indian lore to community groups and at a Campfire Girls camp,[17] sometimes in costume,[18][19][20] and sometimes with her son to accompany her.[21] "The Indian tales deal so much with things in nature," she explained of her work. "They not only give a practical suggestion that is real education for the child mind, but they also afford the imagination a delightful impetus."[22]

Cappel was also active with the Dickens Fellowship,[23][24] and the Los Angeles branch of the National League of American Pen Women.[25][26] She was reported to be "the first woman of her ancestry to become a Daughter of the American Revolution".[27]

Jennie Strange married Richard O. Rolson in 1891; they had a son, Robert Earl Rolson (1893–1986), and moved to California, where they divorced. She married Albert Cappel in 1916, in Los Angeles.[28] He died in 1937. She lived in Laguna Beach in her later years,[29] and died in 1949, aged 76 years, in Los Angeles. Her gravesite is in Inglewood Park Cemetery.[7]