Lena+Kepple+(Michelle+Black)

 Lena Kepple was born on April 19, 1870, in New York City, NY to Nathaniel and Vivian Kepple. Her parents own a small drug store, which they inherited from Nathaniel's parents. Lena's mother had worked in a dressmaker's shop, which is where she met Nathaniel ad he was picking up a dress for his mother. He began courting her and they were married two years and a half years later. They had a stillborn child that was to be named Marie or Henry, after Vivian's grandmother or Nathaniel's father, A few years later, they had a son named Henry in memory of Nathaniel's father and their firstborn. Two years later they had a baby girl named Lena.

Henry worked selling newspapers in street corners, as his parents wanted him to grow up understanding the importance and value of money. He learned well, and when he was about ten years old, he went to work at his parent's drug store. Lena worked for the same dressmaker her mother had when she and then worked in her parent's store when she was fourteen. She and her brother were very close and she missed him greatly when he left for college. However, Henry fell in love with the daughter of a wealthy family and he dropped out of school so they could run off together and get married. He moved to Florida with his new bride and Lena hoped to visit him there someday.  At the age of fifteen Lena decided she wanted an education; however her parents wanted her to stay in New York. Her parents decided to let her attend Vassar College, in Poughkeepsie, NY in 1886. Vassar was one of the first colleges exclusively for women in the United States. She took the Regular Course in the Department of Ancient and Modern Languages and Literature. After four years there, she received her diploma and decided that she wanted to help immigrants by moving to Chicago and working at at [|Hull House] with [|Jane Addams]. There she helped run a sewing group, as well as teaching immigrants English. She traveled to the Chicago World Fair with Amalie Bratburg. After visiting the Chicago World Fair, Lena returned to Hull House for a few more years where she met Roy West (?).

One day Lena received a letter from Henry asking her to come to see him in Miami. She traveled there to see him, only to discover that his wife had passed away in a tragic accident. She stayed in Miami with Henry to help him take care of his children while he sorted out his affairs. While in Miami, Lena met a man who wrote articles for the Miami Daily News that was a friend of Henry. She began to see him, and they were eventually married. He had been living with his grandmother to take care of her in her old age, so Lena moved in with him and helped take care of her. When his grandmother died, he didn't want to stay in her house, so they decided to sell it and looked for a new house. They met Oliver Meade who built them a house(?).

Character Biography: [] [] This has some pictures and plans for the Midway as well if anyone else attending the Chicago World Fair is interested.