[3][9][10][11] She married Fernand “Fern” Leonce Chandonnet in 1966[12] and they have two sons, Yves and Alexandre.

[2] Her poems have appeared in anthologies and various magazines, including Permafrost, Ice Floe, Abraxas, New Kauri, MidAtlantic and Calapooya Collage.

[14][15] Chandonnet worked as a reporter for the now-defunct the Anchorage Times newspaper[5] from 1982 to 1992 and the Juneau Empire from 1999 to 2002.

She is a member of the Culinary Historians of Washington, D.C., and is the author of the award-winning "Gold Rush Grub" and "The Pioneer Village Cookbook."

In high school, she entered her jams and canned foods to the state fair.