Gertrude Jane was born in Bishop, California in 1908. Later, when the family lived in Simi, she began to excel in music, eventually playing for the Methodist church there.
She went on to study music at USC, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude, in 1933. A gifted performer, she understudied for Alexander Schreiner and performed in concert at First Methodist, Hollywood. Her senior recital, in organ, was the first in the history of the school to be given entirely from memory.
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 In 1930, she went with family accompanying brother Robert's honeymoon trip to visit the Isle of Man. A most beautiful young woman, she was attracted to Eric Taplin, then a dashing junior engineer officer on the liner, Duchess of York. On a second trip to Europe in 1934, they became engaged, and were married at the Cannell home in Forest Grove in 1935.
Julian was born in 1937. Jane had many harrowing wartime experiences, including a nearly disastrous move to France in 1940. After France fell, she and Julian eventually reached the US on SS Washington, the last ship repatriating US citizens from Europe, but not before being held up by a German Uboat.
For nearly four and a half years of the war, Jane was separated from Eric, living first in Forest Grove and then in Hermiston. Lack of communication from the war zone, particularly when Eric was nearly killed at Dunkirk, made the separation very difficult. In 1944, she returned to Europe to meet Eric when he returned from North Africa and Persia. She and Julian crossed Canada by train to join MV Rangitata in war-time convoy from New York to Liverpool.
After reunion with Eric in the Isle of Man, she lived in Mill Hill, London, where she endured the last of the manned bomber, VI and V2 attacks. Christine was born in 1945. In late 1946, Jane and children joined Eric in Lubeck in occupied Germany.
Geraldine was born in the nearby (British Army) 94th General Hospital in Hamburg, in 1947. Jane distinguished herself in Lubeck by supporting many very hungry and very cold German refugees with rations from the household.
On returning to UK in 1950, the family settled in Fleet for five stable years, after which it moved to Maracaibo, Venezuela, with Eric's post-retirement position with Shell Oil Co. Jane was organist and choir director at Christ Church in Maracaibo. She and Eric divorced in 1959, after which she and daughters returned to the US where she taught music in Oregon and California for several years.
  In California, she met Herman Rempel, whom she married in 1970, moving to his long time home in Fresno. Jane and Herman retired to Pacific Grove in 1983. They had 27 rich years together, years that included expeditions to Panama and to Baja California. Jane died in 1999, and rests with Herman in Carmello Cemetery overlooking Monterey Bay.
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Gertrude Jane, second daughter of Robert S. Cannell and Gertrude Cannell was born October 19, 1908 in Bishop, Inyo County, CA. She married Eric Taplin in Forest Grove, Oregon in 1935. They had three children. They divorced in 1959 and she married Herman Rempel in Fresno, CA in 1970.
