Editor’s note: To make the online memorials special, we accept articles written by someone in the branch. Include fond memories, appreciation for her activities in the branch, whether she was an art, letters or music member, and something about her creative works and achievements. Always include date and age at time of death. Please also send photos of the member and of her work, or commentary about her creativity. Submissions for the In Memoriam webpage follow the deadlines for the The Pen Woman magazine.
We honor the lives of these departed Pen Women…
Dolores Caporale
June 27, 1929 — January 12, 2026
Dolores Caporale, of Hicksville, NY, peacefully passed away on January 12, 2026 at the age of 96. She was a longtime and very active member of the Long Island Branch, which she served as secretary for many years.
Originally a plein-air painter, she became intrigued with collage and experimented in various creative techniques that were different, such as geli printing. Although much of her work was abstract, it always contained something of the human element.
Growing up in Brooklyn, Caporale attended Traphagen School of Fashion in Manhattan. She was employed as a fashion illustrator for a New York design and fashion magazine. She also continued her art studies by painting at the Art Students League. After moving to Long Island, she became active in art communities, attended workshops, and exhibited her work.
Dolores Caporale will be missed by her family and friends, as well as by her fellow branch members, who will always remember her kind and generous nature and wonderful smile.
Ida Mae Kempel
Ida Mae Kempel, a longtime Diablo-Alameda Branch letters member and past president, died in January 2026.
Kempel was born on Good Friday, April 6, 1928. She authored several books and short stories. Her award-winning book “What was in Jeremy’s Egg?” was used in countless Easter Sunday sermons.
Josephine “Jo” White
1947-2025
Josephine “Jo” White was a Yucca Branch letters member. She published a cookbook titled “Taco Tales and Take Out” for the New Mexico Air National Guard. She wrote weekly columns, “The Roaring Mouse from the White House” and the “Nosey Neighbor,” for many New Mexico newspapers.
White graduated from the University of New Mexico with a degree in communications, a minor in art, and a teaching certificate for English, history, journalism, and drama. She wrote, cast, and directed melodramas for the Wildlife West Nature Park, where the theatre is named in her honor. She held various offices in the Yucca Branch of NLAPW in New Mexico and is fondly remembered for her wit, cooking skills, great limericks, and love of life.
Archives (by NLAPW date published):
- Helen Grace Sims Smaw
- Diana Kaye Obe
- Pat Ellson
- Eugénie Rocherolle
- Donna Solin
- Francella T. Hall
- Pauline Rae (Anderson) Mounsey
- Audry Louise Lynch
- Bea Hartman
- Mary Louise “ML” Hopson
- Marnelle Rosalie White
- Norma Slavit
- ShaRon Haugen
- Nancy Nesvik
- Maureen Cue
- Phyllis Coniglio
- Carol Mann
- Janet Collins
- Margaret Helen Bennett
- Nina Adkins
- Sandra Quinlan
- Barbara Chamberlain
- Anne Bonner
- Bernice Delores Strand Reid
- Nancy Klotz
- Patricia Dennis
- Caryl Huffaker
- Betty Prisendorf
- Mary Joan Meagher
- Marcy Von Kohorn
- Cyndi Marble
- Mary Lou Taylor
- Judith McGinn
- Irene Sedeora
- Jean Elizabeth Holmes
- JoAnna O’Keefe
- Camilla Bozzoli Rudolph
- Polly Craig
- Rosemary Wood Dodd
- Jane Nowlin
- Christina Laurie
- Lois Batchelor Howard
- Lois Perdue
- Jeanne Dupre
- Ruth B. Muir
- Lee VanSiclen Tatem
- Barbara Ann Daly
- Catherine Margaret Rayburn
- Shirley Waters
- Ima Pastula
- Judy Allen
- Beverly Ann Hargis Fleming
- Judy Eggart
- Carol David
- Halide Smith
- Rita Toppa Busch
- Jane McDonald Johnson
- Shirley May Tabler
- Frances Tunnell Carter
- Jacqueline Campbell
- Pauline Dages
- Mary Elizabeth McKenna
- Rosemary Potter
- Dr. Myra F. Levick
- Ann Terry Davis
- Thelma H. Urich
- Genevieve “Jenny” Gumptertz
- Bette Veronica Miller
- Judy Bingman
- Nancy Bloomer Deussen
- Marcia Chellis Kay
- Catherine Wilding Atkinson
- Colleen Stanley Bare
- Cokie Roberts
- Carolyn Alexander Fleming, Pensacola Branch
- Kathleen Langan, Greenwich Connecticut Branch
- Pearl Newton Rook, Central New York Branch
- Diana Carol (Howe) Etheridge, Satellite Beach Florida Branch
- Yvonne Kirkpatrick Willie, Birmingham Branch (Alabama)
- Dorothy Timmons, 101, Art Member, Des Moines Branch
- Barbara Pierce Bush, Honorary Member
- Grace Lieberman, Modesto Branch
- Mary Elizabeth Perry Hildebrand, member-at-large
- Muriel C. Freeman, former national president, Alexandria Branch
- Janet Schulz, Stockton-Lodi Branch
- Diane Louise Wold, Modesto Branch
- Virginia Dall, Modesto Branch
- Cheri M. Bentley-Beckman, Palm Springs Branch
- Idell Weiss, art member, Golden Gate Marin Branch
- Kay O. Cornelius, Huntsville Branch
- Stella “Maurine” Vance Geldmacher, Southeast Louisiana Branch
- Arlene Montgomery Spencer, Indianapolis Branch
- Gloria Huttner Ross, Southeast Louisiana Branch
- Katie Wainwright, Southeast Louisiana Branch
- Liana M. Moonie, Greenwich, CT Branch
- Lois A. Charles, Diamond State, DE Branch
- Carolyn Burton Landers, Atlanta Branch
- Anne Lorraine Macdonald, Greenwich, CT Branch
- Pam Babcock, La Jolla, CA Branch
- Lois Duncan, Sarasota, FL Branch
- Harriet Foster-Parrish, Nashville Branch
- Donna Freckmann, Pensacola FL Branch
- Gayle Norton Hornsby, Nashville Branch
- Dorothy Kishibay, Connecticut Pen Women
- G. Arlene Silva Mattos, Modesto, CA Branch
- Kathleen Alice Neal, Atlanta Branch
- Margaret Lynch Siskow, Iowa City, IA Branch
- Emily Virginia Blake Vail, Atlanta Branch