Born in France in 1896, Van Roekens came to the United States with her parents as an infant. Known for Impressionist landscapes, scenes of daily life, dance and still-lifes, she studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. She joined the faculty at the Moore College of Art for Women in Philadelphia where she taught for nearly forty years. It was there she met her future husband, New Hope Impressionist Arthur Meltzer, who served as head of the Fine Arts Department. They married in 1927 and lived in their Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania home from that year until their deaths.