Birth date: 12-08-1930 |
Date of death: 07-12-2018 |
Country of origin: ![]() |
Primary Occupation: Green Woodworker |
Secondary Occupation: Writer |
Spouse(s): |
Early Life
1 Jennie Alexander was a transgender woman. She spent her early childhood in Baltimore, Maryland learning to play the piano and later became a Jazz musician. She was introduced to woodworking at the Baltimore polytechnic institute High School and would later go on to open up her own home shop in 1960.
Her mother grew up in Quincy Massachusetts and was part of the educational Sloyd system. Because of this Jennie was always encouraged to explore woodworking and learning through doing.
Her father was a lawyer, and Jennie also attended law school at the university of Maryland, becoming a divorce lawyer for a period of her life before embracing greenwoodworking.
Later Life
1 Her wife Joyce died in 1996. Jennie has three daughters. In 2007, at the age of 77 and after 32 years of Alcoholics Anonymous Jennie transitioned from male to female.
Jennie Alexander has five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, and one of her sons was named after her old name, John D. Alexander III.
Career
1 In 1978 Jennie Alexander wrote, Make a Chair from a Tree: An Introduction to Working Green Wood, which was the first woodworking book published by Taunton Press. This book describes the process and tools required to construct a shaved two-slat post-and-rung chair without the use of a wood lathe.
She became a member of the Early American Industries Association (EAIA) which was a crucial step in her exploration of woodworking and chair making as it gave her access to collections of joined furniture. She also demonstrated how to make the shaved two-slat post-and-rung chair at an event hosted by EAIA. She later taught classes at Drew Langsner's Country Workshops in North Carolina and mentored many students.
At Country Workshops she met Peter Follansbee, and after years of corresponding, would go on to co write a book with him called, Make a joint stool from a tree, an introduction to 17th-century joinery.
Jennie spent her later years mentoring many in greenwoodworking techniques and joinery. Jennie died July 12, 2018.
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