Charles Theodore GREENER, son of Christian and Albina GREENER, was born at Lancaster, WI on March 16, 1870. In 1883, he moved with his parents to Dakota Territory and located in Hand County. In 1890 they moved to Faulkton. On Dec 20, 1900 he married Florence JONES. They had one daughter, Dorothy Lyle.
All of his life he was deeply interested in art and was a painter. He received his art training in the art school at Grand Forks, ND, and also studied some at Cincinnati, OH and Minneapolis, MN. The early portion of his life was divided between portrait work and landscape, but in later years he spent more time painting landscapes of Dakota scenes. His portraits of Gov Byrne and Gov Herried hang in the Capital at Pierre. He was commissioned by the Young Citizen's League of SD to paint a South Dakota scene, to be given to President Calvin Coolidge. Charles GREENER's pictures were exhibited at state conventions and women's clubs and some were sent in exhibits of the work of well-known artists of the country in Minneapolis, Omaha, Chicago and Cincinnati. Some won high awards and favorable comment, whenever shown. Many of his paintings were wherever shown. Many of his painting were purchased by the people of Faulkton. He died July 4, 1935 at Faulkton, at the age of 65. He was buried in the Faulkton Cemetery. Florence GREENER died Jan 31, 1957, and is buried in the Faulkton Cemetery.
In 1971, his daughter, Mrs. Clarence (Dorothy) Olson of Custer, and also Mr. and Mrs. Homer (Irene) Cordts gave several of his painting to the SD Memorial Art Center in Brookings, where they will be on display permanently. The SD Memorial Art Center at Brookings has a permanent collection of approximately 20 Greener paintings, mostly donated by relatives and friends. It is one of a series of traveling exhibits under the sponsorship of the art center. Mrs. Homer (Irene) CORDTS has compiled a card file record of all the known Greener paintings. To date she has located 315 works, distributed throughout the country, in addition to one of the "Coyote at Sunrise" which went to France during World War I. She has donated the card file to the Art Center at Brookings and hopes to update it as she finds more pictures.