Blanche Alice Reardon (1901-1957) and Nellyebelle Reardon (1908-1989) were born on a 20-acre family farm in Kinnickinnic Township in St. Croix County Wisconsin. The youngest of eight children, the girls moved with two siblings and their mother into the Town of River Falls by 1920, where Blanche completed teacher training at the State Normal School at River Falls (now University of Wisconsin- River Falls). The sisters followed a brother to Chicago and utilized their musical and performance training to start the Reardon Sisters act. They toured Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan for a variety of audiences throughout the 1920's-early 1930s. Blanche Reardon married Charles Cannon, an intellectual property lawyer from Superior, Wisconsin in 1935 and the Reardon Sisters discontinued performances shortly thereafter. Nellyebelle married George D. Tolpo in 1942. (biographical information taken from collection)