Jenny Nickel was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on September 25, 1898.  Her name was Jennie Edith Daniels.

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Jennie's early life was defined by the violin.  She started lessons at age 7 when the family was in Chickasha

They had moved there when Oklahoma was still Indian Territory.  The family owned a General Store but the earning power of The Daniels Sisters helped.  They were a phenomenon and they played often, professionally..


    

At first, Jennie and her younger sister, Gertrude, played at public concerts, church socials, and dime-a-dance nights around Chickasha.

       





               

The sisters' lives were very controlled.  They had no time to play with other children and certain activities, like rollerskating, were forbidden for fear they might hurt their hands.

  

After 3-4 years, the Daniels family left Oklahoma and moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan.  The Daniels sisters went to High School there.  They also played in a musical group with their mother playing piano, their father on the clarinet, Jennie's boyfriend Willard Nickel on trumpet and Trudy's boyfriend Perry MacDonald as the drummer.

                 

The Daniels sisters dropped out of Grand Rapids High and never finished.  

Willard Nickel did finish and worked as a high school instructor for one year.  Then he and Jennie were married, in Ohio, where Willard began his long career as an engineer in the auto industry.