She was born February 27, 1923 in Rogersville, Tennessee. As a small child she lived in Detroit, Michigan. The Great Depression forced the family to return to Hawkins County, Tennessee where she attended Lake View School in 1936. Eventually she and her family to the area of Kingsport, Tennessee. Even though she was only 5'2" tall, she was considered an excellent basketball player at Blountville, Tennessee High School, sporting a four year letter jacket enscribed "Speedy". She later did secretarial work for architects, then for a High School and later for the contractor Patch and Zimmerman at the Holston Defense Plant in Kingsport, Tennessee. She died in Kingsport, Tennessee on February 22, 1990 and is buried at East Lawn Cemetery in Kingsport.