If the name Limping Lena means anything to you, chances are you grew up in Stillwater.

Lena Rumpf, known as “Limping Lena” or “Leapin’ Lena,” was famous for walking around downtown with a stick, cursing all the way.

Rumpf, who died in 1992 at age 88, was “4-foot-nothing and weighed less than 70 pounds,” said Brent Peterson, executive director of the Washington County Historical Society. “She skipped everywhere. I remember walking downtown with my mother one day, and a truck crossed the Lift Bridge and came too close to the road. Lena started cussing and beating the grille of the truck with her stick.”

Now, Rumpf’s stick is part of the Washington County Historical Society’s collection. Dave Palmer, the son of Mary Palmer, Rumpf’s caregiver, recently donated Rumpf’s stick, watch, eyeglass

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