Born in 1902, Tella Kitchen moved from a small farm near the tiny Ohio village of Londonderry to a small farm outside of Independence, Indiana, at a young age. She spent her childhood there and, at the age of 18, married Nolan Kitchen and returned to Ohio to live in the small village of Adelphi. Her husband served as Adelphi's mayor and upon his death, Tella took over his job and became America's first woman mayor. She had raised four children and surrounded by grandchildren and over a dozen great-grandchildren, she had lived a full, but simple country life.

"After I was left alone and trying to keep busy, my youngest son, knowing my love for art, gave me a set of paints...I was too old to paint new-fangled thin...