Born Caroline Helen Thomas[1][nb 1] in Oxford, England on December 28, 1866.

[2][3][4] The daughter of Mary Ann Webb and Robert Thomas,[5] a plumber, painter and decorator.

[6] She came to the United States in 1892[7] and on December 16, 1895 she married Theodore Dranga,[8] a merchant who was born in Wisconsin in 1867 to parents who had immigrated from Norway.

[11][12] Her paintings regularly appeared on the cover of Paradise of the Pacific magazine in the 1920s and 1930s,[3] such as the Golden Shower Tree published in a 1927 edition.

[3][14] Her works were included in Encounters with paradise: views of Hawaii and its people, 1778-1941 in 1992.