Pinako Rockbell

Pinako Rockbell is a surgeon and weaponsmith living and working in the town of Resembool in the eastern region of Amestris. Mixing her two specialties, Pinako is also a prominent automail engineer and presumably the founder of Rockbell Automail, a family-run automail atelier within the town. Pinako also happens to be the grandmother of Winry Rockbell as well as the neighbor and close family friend of the Elrics - Van Hohenheim, Trisha, Edward and Alphonse. As Winry's only remaining blood relative after the death of her parents, and the only closest adult to the Elric brothers after their mother's passing and their father's disappearance, Pinako acts as caretaker to the three youngsters, training Winry in automail engineering and serving as Ed and Al's home base whenever they return to Resembool.

In the Anime
Pinako Rockbell makes only minor appearances throughout the series, usually accompanied by Winry, with whom she resides in their home in Resembool.

In the Manga
Pinako Rockbell is one of Amestris' most famous automail engineers and considered an independant - and, to some, even scary - woman. It's said that, during her young age, she travelled all over the country in order to perfect her abilities, but it's not clear how she came to live in Resembool, nor how she came to have Urey or who's his father.

She had befriended Van Hohenheim when she was still young - she knows him, at least, since 1866 - and always seems to help and care for him, even though she knows and seems to be slightly frightened of his secret of never aging.

She first appeared in Chapter 9 of the manga, when Ed and Major Armstrong came to visit, and she and Ed immediately got into an argument about their height. In later chapters she makes the most prominent appearance when Hohenheim came to visit, and then when Ed decided to dig up the remains of their failed transmutation, and was saddened to watch Ed come to the realization that the corpse did not resemble his mother in any way.

Later, everytime they have something to solve in Resembool, Pinako seems to help. Although she might not seem very protective towards Winry, Ed and Al, it can be implyed she believes those children have to 'live their own experience' and she's confident they'll call on her whenever is necessary. She always complains to Winry she never calls from Rushvalley, but also understands and supports her decision of pursuing training in automail engineering.

She also seemed to realise the nature of Ed and Winry's relationship long before them, but doesn't seem to have any objections, being rather amused of their constant fighting.

Trivia

 * In an omake strip, Hiromu Arakawa revealed that Pinako hides Nattō beans in her hair, although this is probably not to be taken seriously and might have been only intended as a joke.
 * It was revealed in volume 5, that she was feared by an automail engineer named Dominic, and was known as 'The Pantheress of Resembool'. (much to the shock of Ed, Winry, and Al)