Mabel Idella Lien was born in Renville County, Minnesota, on March 14, 1899. She became a nurse and Lutheran Sister, or Deaconess, in 1922 and volunteered to go where needed. She was sent to the Bering Strait where she served in the 1920s and 1930s. At least part of her time was in Teller, where she met Roald Amundsen when he and his team arrived, having flown from Norway in the Dirigible Norge. She was released from her vows in 1935 and married Henry Steen in 1936. They farmed in Washinton and Oregon and raised four children, one of whom was named for Roald Amundsen, who apparently made quite an impression. She passed away on June 27, 1974, aged 75, in Washington, and was buried at Crescent Grove Cemetery, in Tigard, Washington County, Oregon.

Her grandson, Greg Lien, wrote: “My father told me a few stories about Mabel’s experiences in Alaska. One time she operated on a kitchen table to remove a youngster’s appendix. During a visit back home to Minnesota she consulted with our local dentists in Granite Falls to learn how to fill teeth, and brought various dental supplies back to the mission in Alaska.”