Her most famous work, Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones, a novel about a teen pregnancy, was made into a TV movie and stayed in print for four decades.

[2][1][8] Her grandfather, Niels Christensen,[6] was a Union soldier in the Civil War and served as superintendent of the Beaufort National Cemetery from 1870 to 1876.

"[13] Head wrote short stories,[14][15][16] novelettes, and serials with "charm and gaiety"[16] for magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post, Collier's, Ladies Home Journal, Redbook, McCall's, and Good Housekeeping.

McGraw-Hill, the publishers of her first novel, Fair with Rain (1957), promoted it by sending to book review editors an engraved invitation to the wedding of Angela to David Blair, followed by a handwritten postcard informing them that the wedding was off, and finally, a copy of the novel with a covering letter from a McGraw-Hill representative.

[17] The novel is written in the first person, from the point of view of Janet Blair, a mother of four children, the oldest of whom (David) is away at college, and writes to say he is bringing a girl (Angela) home.

"[11] It was recommended to those who "enjoy entertainment mildly flavoured with tragedy",[25] and its author was described as "skilled in descriptive ability and in setting atmospheres",[26] who "writes of [the South] with [] love and understanding.

"[23] Everyone Adored Cara (Doubleday, 1963) Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones (Putnam, 1967) became her best-known work and was made into a movie for television in 1971.

Head taught a creative writing class at Beaufort High School, where she mentored a student named Pat Conroy, who later became a famous novelist.