Born in
Buffalo, New York, May 21, 1903 Frances Gillmor was the only child of Abner Churchill Gillmor and Annie McVicar Gillmor. Gillmor intended to be a writer publishing her first novel in 1929. She attended the
University of Chicago in 1921 but left before graduation in 1923 and became a reporter. Her mother's ill health took the family to
Arizona in 1926 and Gillmor returned to the
University of Arizona where she completed a bachelor's and a masters in Arts, finishing in 1931. She became a Navajo expert, having done her master's thesis on John and
Louisa Wade Wetherill in the Navajo reservation in Arizona. ==Career==