Rollande J. Krandall passed away suddenly and unexpectedly in the early hours of the morning of February 5, 2017 from a pulmonary embolism. She had been away from home, helping her father in Minnesota. She was 52 years old.
Rollande was born on August 17, 1964 in Detroit, Michigan to Norman and Rosalie Krandall. She spent her early childhood in the Detroit area. When her parents divorced, she went with her mother to Denver, Colorado and attended grade school and high school there. She then returned to Michigan and briefly attended college, but did not then graduate (Antioch College in Ohio in 1982, and Wayne State University in Michigan in 1983).
In 1984, she and a friend packed up a popup camper and for three years travelled around the country performing at various Renaissance Faires. Rollande was a street performer (busker). She had a beautiful soprano singing voice, and sang the traditional ballads of the British Isles and played the mandolin and ocarina. After the Faires, she moved to California to become the lead singer in an all-woman Celtic band.
While in California, she met David M. MacMillan in 1988. We moved back to Michigan in a complicated process about two years later so that she could help a beloved great uncle through his final years. Rollande and David were married on May 1, 1993.
Rollande started college again, at Oakland University in Michigan, in the late 1990s. She completed her Bachelor of Music (B. Mus.) degree with a specialization in Composition in 2004. Overlapping this, she and David moved to Mineral Point, Wisconsin, in 2003.
Rollande had by then taken up glass bead making ("flameworking") and jewelry making. After so many years in music, she wanted to create art that you could touch with your hands. She developed a small business, Singing Lemur Jewelry, making jewelry for sale at conventions around the country and online.
Rollande is survived by her husband David M. MacMillan, her father Norman Krandall, and her sister Dawn. There will be no funeral, as her friends were many and deep but they are scattered all over the country. Donations in lieu of flowers are not requested and no specific arrangements have been set up, but should you wish to do so, a donation mentioning her to the Duke Lemur Center would be appropriate.