Janet Lambert was an actress and author of 54 books of young adult fiction for girls from 1941 to 1969. Lambert's works, best known as the Penny and Tippy Parrish series, focused on the lives and the coming of age choices of the wives and children, especially daughters, of U.S. Army officers during World War II and the Korean War-era.
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Lambert was born Maude Janet "Dodi" Snyder December 12 or 17, 1893 in or near Crawfordsville, Indiana, the daughter of Francis Leonidas Snyder and Mabel Galey.
She married Kent Craig Lambert (1891–1982) on January 1, 1918. Kent, a brother of longtime Purdue basketball coach, Ward Lambert, was a 1913 graduate of Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana, He served in World War I and continued his Army career as a cavalry officer. In World War II, he saw service in North Africa, Anzio and China. He retired as a full colonel in 1951 after 34 years active duty as post commander of Fort Jay, Governors Island, in New York City. A photograph of his departure from Fort Jay and the Army illustrated the dust jacket of one of her books.
While not well documented, Lambert did perform on the Broadway stage in the years before and during World War I.
The couple had one daughter, Jeanne Anne Lambert (born 1918) who, not unlike a character in her mother's books, did marry a United States Military Academy graduate, Second Lieutenant Dean Titus Vanderhoef (USMA 1940), at Fort Jay's post chapel on July 27, 1940.
Lambert's life experience as an Army wife provided the background and settings for many of her books about the lives of teenage children of military officers. While the U.S. Military Academy figures appear frequently in the lives of her characters, her husband did not attend West Point, gaining his officer training through the National Guard and mid-level Army schools such at the United States Army Cavalry School at Fort Riley, Kansas. In 1930, he was instructor at the Virginia Military Institute.
As for her female characters, often military wives or children, she drew on her experiences and observations as a military wife herself and one who did have to balance and choose career aspirations and married life.
Janet Lambert died on March 16, 1973 at Beach Haven, New Jersey and is buried with her husband in Crawfordsville, Indiana.
Listed by series and years of original publication:
PENNY PARRISH STORIES
TIPPY PARRISH STORIES
JORDON STORIES
PARRI MACDONALD STORIES
CANDY KANE STORIES
DRIA MEREDITH STORIES
CAMPBELL STORIES
SUGAR BRADLEY STORIES
CHRISTIE DRAYTON STORIES
PATTY AND GINGER STORIES
CINDA HOLLISTER STORIES