Butler was born at the Roper River Mission at, what is now known as,
Ngukurr and was the youngest of five children born to Barnabas (also known as Gabarla) and Norah Roberts. Butler was originally named Mercy and it is unknown why her name was changed. Two of her brothers were
Phillip Waipuldanya Roberts and
Silas Ngulati Roberts. Butler was then taken to the
Bathurst Island Mission where she was told her family at Ngukurr did not want her. She never saw her mother again and Norah, who left the leprosarium after the
Bombing of Darwin died elsewhere shortly afterwards and the family were never able to find her grave. She then spent the duration of the war and lived on a farm in
Carrieton. and after the war she was returned to Pirlangimpi. While there she undertook a three-year maternal and child course and spent the next few years at isolation mission centres throughout the mountains. There she acted as a midwife and taught mothers how to better feed their children. In 1969, while employed by the hospital, Butler was sent to
Daly River, alongside a nurse, to assist in the care of
quadruplets that had been born to Mabel Mein-Bel at the hospital and then sent home to their community. This multiple birth garnered national attention in the media. Some time later Butler visited her mothers family at
Ngukurr and there married an Alawa man Herbert Butler who was a linesman based in
Alice Springs. They moved together there were Butler had one child, a son called Richard. There Butler was able to undertake training as an enrolled nurse, nurses aid, and worked at the Alice Springs Hospital for a time before transferring to work in community health to be able to work more closely with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients. When Butler became unwell she was sent to
Adelaide for treatment, accompanied by her husband, and died there on 29 September 1990. == References ==