Leontine Grogrande and her husband, Jules, were the proprietors of the Grogrande Bakery. They were originally from Paris, France, but had emigrated to America. Leontine was commonly known as Madame Tina by the children who visited the bakery. Madame Grogrand was quite short and quite fat, but she had a round, pleasant face. She was fond of children and very generous to the smallest of them. She generally ran the storefront while her husband did all of the baking. Madame Tina suffered from rheumatism, and moved very slowly. She was also color-blind.