Her paternal grandfather, Henry Kane, was born into slavery at Sotterley Plantation in St. Mary's County, Maryland.

[2] After attending Baltimore public schools, she held a variety of jobs, including salesperson for a black-owned cosmetics company, Beauty Queen Co.; insurance agent for the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company; licensed practical nurse at Rosewood Hospital; and night clerk for the United States Postal Service.

[2] She also contributed many articles to the Catholic Review about the role of people of African descent, such as Mathias de Sousa, in colonial Maryland.

[1] In 1982 she gave a presentation titled The Genealogy of a Slave Family of St. Mary's County, Maryland 1793–1900 at the annual conference of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH).

[2] She documented the history of St. Francis Xavier Church in East Baltimore, the first Catholic parish officially established for African Americans.

[2] In 2006, a complete set of her published works was donated to the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture in Baltimore.