Jeanne Arnold (formerly Jeanne Chalekian) is a lesbian feminist author of Racine, Wisconsin. Arnold was born on November 14, 1931. She attended the University of Wisconsin-Racine Extension for two years and continued her bachelor’s degree in English education, library science, and journalism at UW—Madison, graduating in 1953. In 1952 she married Alexander Chalekian. She became the mother of two children. In the 1960s she divorced her husband to begin a life with her partner, Barbara Lindquist. Lindquist was born on May 25, 1930. She earned an associate degree from Wright Junior College in Chicago and a B.A. from UW-Parkside in 1971.
During the 1970s, she and Lindquist worked at St. Luke’s hospital. In 1977, workers at the hospital staged a strike. Arnold, a journalist, kept a chronicle of the six-week incident. Arnold and Lindquist further founded Mother Courage Bookstore and Art Gallery in Racine in 1978 to promote feminism and to establish a gathering place for women. In 1981 Phyllis E. Sweet asked them to publish her manuscript entitled Something Happened to Me, which addressed child sexual abuse. Mother Courage Press published 5000 copies. The press eventually published 26 books on the theme of abuse, feminism, feminist spirituality, and lesbianism. The business logo includes the universal symbol for female combined with a lifesaver and was designed by Lindquist. In 2004, Arnold began a series of seven memoirs entitled Whistling Girls and Crowing Hens, which detailed aspects of her life and relationships.
