An independent scholar and blogger who spent the last twenty years studying biography, Stefanie Van Steelandt (@ladyofthearmy) grew up near Belgium's Liberty Road, which General Patton and his Third Army followed during WWII. After a decade in the art world, she serendipitously landed on the subject of Mrs. Beatrice Ayer Patton. Based on hours of interviews and years of research, Lady of the Army received the 2023 Benjamin Franklin Silver Award for Biography. Ms. Van Steelandt lives in NYC and is currently working on her second biography, the story of the “five beautiful Delano sisters,” one of whom would become the mother of future President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
