Adele was born in St. Louis to Adolph Burgdorfer and Mary Elizabeth Frederick, both of whom were immigrants from Germany.

[10] She wrote screenplays for most of the well-known Western actors of the period, including Tom Keene in Freighters of Destiny (1931),[11] John Wayne in Haunted Gold (1932),[12] Hoot Gibson in A Man's Land,[13] Buck Jones in 1932's High Speed,[14] Whip Wilson in Range Land (1949),[15] and Tim Holt in Overland Telegraph (1951).

(Per AFI database)[7] In the late 1950s, Buffington would also write a single episode for two different television series: Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok in 1955 and The Restless Gun in 1959.

Buffington's final screenplay was for 1958's Bullwhip, which starred Guy Madison and Rhonda Fleming,[22] after which she retired from the film industry.

She spent her later years living at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital, in Woodland Hills, California, where she died on November 23, 1973.