Celia Zimmerman was an alumna of Linfield College (1935). She and her brother, Gordon Zimmerman, were longtime residents of Yamhill County and were involved in the arts during their lives in McMinnville. Gordon, an operatically trained tenor, premiered the American performance of Carmina Burana by Carl Orff in 1954 and occasionally sang with the Linfield Choir, notably in a Messiah production