Boggs was born in
Spartanburg, South Carolina. She was the daughter of Mary Esther Long and Ralph Emerson Boggs, a
Presbyterian elder. In 1923, her family moved to
Birmingham, Alabama, where her father started a construction business. After completing high school, Boggs attended
Birmingham–Southern College, where she studied English and was a reporter for the student newspaper. Figueres would go on to lead the opposition forces in the 1948 Costa Rican Civil War. Therein he led a successful democratic revolution against the government, abolished the army, and catapulted Boggs to the role of first lady. From that vantage point, she successfully pushed for giving Costa Rican women the right to vote. Over time, Boggs realized that marriage and life in politics were incompatible, given her independent spirit in what was still very much a patriarchal society. Boggs divorced Figueres in 1954, and she took their children to
New York City, where she worked for Costa Rica's delegation to the
United Nations while pursuing her lifelong passion of writing. ==Documentary film==