Ella Marie Gale Kedzie     (1856-1935)

Ella Marie Gale was the eldest of three children born to Reverend Elbridge and Elizabeth Gale.  From her birthplace in Pavilion, Illinois, the family moved in 1867 to Manhattan, Kansas, where he father was pastor of the Baptist Church and an instructor at Kansas State Agricultural College. The family later moved to Olivet, Michigan where he was Professor of Horticulture at Olivet College.  The public schools of Manhattan prepared her for entering Olivet College, from which she graduated in 1876.  She then married William K. Kedzie, Professor of Chemistry that same year.  Upon her graduation, the College employed her as an instructor in Industrial drawing for several years.  Her husband resigned his position there in July of 1878 to take a similar chair at Oberlin College where he died in April of 1880.  After the death of her husband, Kedzie spent a few years in Chicago where she had her own studio.  In 1884 she returned to Olivet College as a teacher of painting and drawing, a position she held through December of 1891. 

Early in 1892 Mrs. Kedzie moved to Lansing, Michigan, where she continued to give private lessons in her home as well as at Michigan Agricultural College.  She also maintained studio in Lansing’s old City Hall.  A painter in oils and watercolors, she was also competent in the art of china painting.  She died in Lansing, Michigan, in September of 1935.

Biographical information from the exhibition catalogue: Early Michigan Paintings, Michigan State University, 1976; also the archives of Olivet College.

Submitted by Edward Bentley, researcher of Lansing, Michigan.