Journalist headlines program at library

Redlands’ A.K. Smiley Public Library will commemorate Women’s History Month with a presentation by journalist Janelle Molony on “Becoming Mrs. Sarah Jane Rousseau.”

The program is at 11 a.m. Saturday in the library’s Assembly Room and will also be available on Zoom.

Molony, a descendant of Sarah Jane Rousseau, will tell the story of Rousseau’s journey to San Bernardino in the 19th century.

Rousseau is known for her 1864 diary about the overland journey to California of the Pella Company that features young celebrity lawmen in the Earp family. In her earlier life, Rousseau was a member of England’s landed gentry and an accomplished pianoforte player. After immigrating to the United States in the 1830s, she became a finishing school teacher and almost became a first lady, according to a news release.

Janelle Molony, a member of the Western Writers of America and Oregon-california Trails Association, is a verified descendant of the Rousseau family and is editor of “The 1864 Diary of Mrs. Sarah Jane Rousseau, published in 2023.

She hosts the Wyoming Historical Society’s Youtube series “Women of Wyoming: Then & Now,” and her latest release is “Emigrant Tales of the Platte

River Raids.”

For information on Molony and her work, go to Janellemolony.com.

The A.K. Smiley Public Library is at 125 W. Vine St., Redlands, and there is no charge for the Saturday program. For the link to see the program on Zoom, go to akspl.org/newsevents/celebrate-womens-history-month-2/.

For information, contact the library’s Heritage Room at 909798-7632.