Charlene "Mac" Eblen, homemaker and English professor, was born Charlene Wilma Osborn in 1925 in Wichita, Kansas, to Blanche Osborn. In 1929, Blanche Osborn married Fred T. McFadden. Afterwards, Charlene Osborn was known as Charlene Wilma McFadden, though she was not legally adopted by Fred McFadden until the age of sixteen. When she was adopted, Charlene McFadden dropped her middle name, Wilma.”

Charlene McFadden graduated from East High School in Wichita, Kansas, in 1942 and went on to attend Wichita University, where she earned a BA in English in 1945. While at Wichita University, McFadden met Roy Eblen; they married in 1945 and had three children: Kathy, Rick, and David. In 1957, the family moved to a farm outside of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, so that Roy Eblen could begin work on a doctorate in speech pathology at the University of Iowa. After Roy Eblen received his PhD in 1960, he took a job at the University of Northern Iowa in the speech pathology department and the family moved to Cedar Falls, Iowa. Roy Eblen headed the clinic which now bears his name, the Roy Eblen Speech and Hearing Clinic. He died in 1998.

While Charlene "Mac" Eblen spent most of her children’s growing up years as a homemaker, she taught English briefly at both Wichita University and the University of Northern Iowa. After her children had grown, Eblen became a professor of English at the University of Northern Iowa. From 1967 to 1992, she taught Freshman Composition and Essay, as well as technical and report writing to seniors.