Josephine Hale

Josephine Hale (May 27, 1878 – October 5, 1961) was an early Montana painter and nurse in the Red Cross during World War I. She spent much of her adult life in Great Falls, Montana, but traveled throughout France and the United States.

Personal life Josephine Hale was born in 1878 as Josephine Adeline Bruneau. The Bruneau family had eleven children, of which Hale was the youngest. Most of her siblings were born in Quebec however her family moved to the United States before Hale was born and settled near Sioux Point, South Dakota. In 1896 Hale graduated from a high school in Sioux City, Iowa. Two years later, at the age of twenty, Hale moved to Great Falls, MT where three of her siblings already lived. She began teaching in Eden, ten miles away from Great Falls, after passing her teacher certification test. The Montana Museum of Art and Culture states that it is likely she taught at "Canyon Schoolhouse, in the Eden area."

While in Great Falls, Josephine Hale met her husband, wealthy rancher Walter George Hale. The two married August 22, 1901 but the marriage lasted only three years. Walter Hale contracted and then died of tuberculosis. After her husband's death, Hale retained ownership of the ranch she had owned with him, and rented it to tenants as a source of income beginning in 1907. In 1910 Hale purchased a three-house lot in Great Falls which she used to board family members. She also created studio space in one of the attics.

Hale was also the subject of an exhibit, "The Life and Art of Josephine Hale, 1878-1961," at the Hockaday Museum of Art.