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Clara Johnson Wolverton was born on December 3, 1879, in Stockton, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, to Sarah Catherine Cole and Gabriel Wolverton. (Note: Wolverton is also sometimes spelled Woolverton in some sources). At the time of her birth, her parents were in their 40s and had two other surviving children - brothers Harry and Gabriel Jr. Some time in the 1880s, the family moved to Trenton, NJ where her father and brother worked as harness makers. Her earliest schooling is unknown, but she began keeping a meticulous record of her grades and teachers’ names while attending Centennial Grammar School from 1892 to 1894 (the current equivalent of middle school), then Trenton High School from 1894 to 1898, where she majored in English.

In the fall of 1898, she enrolled in New Jersey State Normal School. She was given the nickname “Toddie” by her peers and her favorite occupation was “performing experiments.” According to the school’s Grade and Report Book, she does well academically and is “Quick to understand a child’s point of view and to help, yet her manner seems unsympathetic, due to lack of facial expression. Ernest and shows some good ideas of teaching.” Despite the negative evaluation of her manner and expression, she was immediately placed in a teaching position at Bound Brook Public School just before her graduation in February 1901. For the next two years, she was well-reviewed by her superiors and admired by her students in Passaic County Public Schools in Manchester Township and Haledon Borough. Finally, In 1904, she accepted a permanent position in Trenton Public Schools.

She continued to live with her family in Trenton, which, at times, included her brother Harry and nephew Austin Wolverton. Her brother Gabriel Jr. worked in the insurance business as did Austin. Her father died in the early 1900s, and by 1910, she was living with her widowed mother at 248 Pearl Street in Trenton where she continued to live for several decades. In the 1920s, while teaching, she also attended the University of Pennsylvania and received a degree in education.

According to her obituary, she spent 50 years teaching science at Trenton Junior High School No. 1, which opened in 1916, and was later renamed Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School (closed in 2007). She died May 8, 1964, and was buried in Riverview Cemetery, Trenton, New Jersey.

Mildred Eleanor Bard was born on May 11, 1895, to Elmer Bard, a glassblower, and Ella V. Boogar, in Millville, Cumberland County, New Jersey. She had three siblings: Leon, Helen, and Ethel (1891-1980) who also attended New Jersey State Normal School at Trenton and graduated in June 1911. Ethel taught at South 4th Street Elementary School in Millville and later in a private kindergarten. She married Lloyd Cassell, lived in various locations in the Northeast, and died in Massachusetts.

Mildred graduated from Millville High School then began Normal School in the fall of 1913, where she had an active social life with friends and fellow students from Millville. She participated in school and social clubs including “The Fates.” She was Vice-President of Theta Phi, a literary society, and helped to win one of their debates against the Shakespeare Society with her short story “Death’s Hill,” which she described in her diary as about “camp life in Shawmont with an adventure mixed in.” She studied the Domestic Science course and graduated in June 1915, with her final assessment in Grade Books and Reports, volume III, reading: “Bright and a good student but conceited. Always self-conscious and self-centered. State report very good.”

In 1918, Mildred married Harry M. Charlesworth, who was approximately 20 years her senior and worked as a glass mold maker in the Whitall Tatum glass company in Millville. They had a son Kenneth, in 1920. Harry died in 1953.

She began teaching in Millville schools, but she continued her education in Home Economics and received a bachelor's degree with a Phi Alpha Phi award in 1941 from Drexel Institute of Technology (now Drexel University) in Philadelphia. She also completed a masters degree at Drexel, with the thesis “A Study to Determine the Nutritional Background and Needs of Students in Order to Plan a Functional Unit at the Senior High School Level” in 1947.

For nearly 41 years until her retirement in 1957, Mildred taught Home Economics at Millville High School, later becoming a supervisor of that department. Shortly before her retirement she took up painting and quickly became a prolific artist who created over 500 paintings during her lifetime.

In June of 1960, she married George Vernon Pepper (1896-1979), who worked for the New Jersey Employment Service and also was a real estate broker and author. Prior to Mildred, George was married to Dorothy Adams (1901-1949), with whom he had two daughters. George and Mildred began to travel extensively after they both reached age 65. He wrote the book: Help There’s an Artist in my Cabin, about their world travels via freighter ship. Mildred painted throughout despite the challenges of traveling with wet canvases and palettes. Throughout her career and after, she also was active as a participant and volunteer in community service clubs and local arts organizations. She died on August 12, 1985, in Millville, New Jersey.