Mildred Butler Engdahl, nee Mildred Allen Butler, was born in Newton, Massachusetts, in 1897. During her teen years, her family lived in St. Louis, Missouri. She attended Wellesley College and after graduation, taught high school English for several years. In 1925, she left teaching to become the director of the Little Theatre League of Richmond, Virginia, and in 1927, she became director of the Portland Civic Theatre in Portland, Oregon. In 1929, she moved to Los Angeles, California, and later directed the Cheviot Hills Community Players there. In 1932, she and Amandus Julian “Jack” Engdahl were married. In the 1950s, she earned a master's degree in drama from the University of Oregon, and again was a director at the Portland Civic Theatre. She also directed children's theater productions, published scripts for children’s plays, and wrote several historical books and magazine articles. She died in 1987.

Sources: Vital records on Ancestry.com; information provided by Engdahl in her interview.

Marion Farrell Kingery, nee Marion Lockwood Farrell, was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1904. She was married twice, first to Fred Jacobs, whom she married in 1925; they had one child. Jacobs died early in their marriage, and she remarried in 1929, to Lyle B. Kingery, with whom she had a second child. She was an actress at the Portland Civic Theatre under the name of Marion F. Jacobs. She later served as president of the Town Club and National Society of Colonial Dames of Oregon. She died in 1995.

Sources: Vital records on Ancestry.com; information provided by Kingery in her interview.