American suffragist, eugenicist, genealogist, writer, and a member of the founding family of Jewel Tea Company.

Stella Skiff was born on October 29, 1867, in Newton, Iowa to Vernon William Skiff (1841-1926) and Mary Frances Coffin Skiff (1842-1918). She had two younger siblings, Frank Vernon and Blanche Alice Skiff. After establishing a successful dry goods business in Newton, the Skiff family moved to Chicago in 1889. Stella studied music at the Chicago Conservatory with Italian maestro Alfredo Antonio Jannotta in 1892, and was considered a promising lyric soprano. Jannotta, an Italian composer, conductor, and voice instructor, was born in Capua, Italy, on December 20, 1843. After receiving his musical education and starting a professional career in Europe, Alfredo immigrated to the United States in August 1865, settling in Boston, Massachusetts. He taught and conducted in Cincinnati, Ohio and St. Paul, Minnesota before moving to Chicago in 1888.

On July 25, 1893, Stella and Alfredo were married and took residence at the Plaza Hotel in downtown Chicago before settling in Oak Park. They had three sons: Alfred Vernon, Francis (Frank) Skiff, and Joseph Edwin. Alfredo’s declining health caused him to move to Los Angeles, California in 1905 where he continued his music career, with the family visiting him frequently from Chicago. Alfredo died in Los Angeles in April 1913.

Alfred Vernon Jannotta (Dec. 13, 1894-May 31, 1972) married Mary Broderick Lamm (1900-1988) in 1918 and had daughter Mary Frances Jannotta in 1919. Francis (Frank) Skiff Jannotta (Nov. 16, 1896-Jun. 14, 1942) married Helen Scriba in 1922 and had a son Frank. Joseph Edwin Jannotta (Oct. 26, 1898-Nov. 22, 1986) married Ramona Dalzell in 1921 and they had Stella Jr., Joseph Jr., and Edgar. Stella’s sister Blanche married Frank P. Ross in 1899. Ross, along with Stella’s brother Frank Vernon, founded the Jewel Tea Company in 1899.

In the early 1900s Stella became active in the women’s suffrage movement and in rationalist religious organizations. In 1907 Stella joined the Chicago Political Equality League (CPEL), the precursor to the Chicago League of Women Voters. Between 1913 and 1915 she organized within the CPEL and wrote several essays on eugenics and the related issues of birth control, overpopulation, prostitution, sex education, and spouse-choosing. Stella also spent a considerable amount of time researching her family history. After her mother died in 1918, Stella also began to research the Coffin, Thompson, Skiff, Starbuck, and Finley lines of her ancestry. She had two family biographies privately printed, including one for her maternal aunt Alice Virginia Coffin, a co-founder of the P.E.O. Sisterhood, a women’s organization dedicated to educational opportunities for women. Stella died in 1954.