The daughter of Mormon pioneers, she bravely researched a dark chapter of her people's history in preparation for the publication of her 1950 work, The Mountain Meadows Massacre. Her other published works include On the ragged edge: The Life and Times of Dudley Leavitt (1973) and On the Mormon Frontier: The Diary of Hosea Stout (1964). She attended both Brigham Young University and Columbia University. After ending her teaching career to start a family, she devoted herself to the research of Mormon pioneer life.
