Nelle Scanlan

[1] Scanlan started her working life as a secretary in Palmerston North and later set up her own typing business there.

She also wrote articles for the Manawatu Times newspaper and when the journalists enlisted for World War I, she was invited to join the staff.

Her reports covered the lives of royalty and celebrities, and the people and places behind the major political events in Europe at the time.

Scanlan was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 1965 Queen's Birthday Honours, for services to journalism and New Zealand writing.

[3] Scanlan died of a heart attack in Wellington in 1968, aged 86,[1] and was buried at Terrace End Cemetery in Palmerston North.