Her mother died in 1947, and her father in 1950 leaving Ledbetter and her three siblings in the care of her aunt and uncle Grainger and Frances Williams.
She joined the work begun by Adolphine Fletcher Terry, Sara Murphy, and Vivion Brewer in the Women's Emergency Committee to Open Our Schools (WEC), an advocacy group.
Moderated by Ledbetter, the participants shared their personal experiences in a bridge building exercise with the communities they visited in an effort to broaden the discussion and reduce opposition to desegregation.
Under her leadership, the panel served the interests of agriculture, civil rights, economic justice and development, education, environment, and government and corporate accountability.
In addition to her work on economic and cultural justice, Ledbetter was an outspoken feminist and a vocal participant in the women's movement.
She was organizer of the first Planned Parenthood Affiliate and clinic in Arkansas, and she led the campaign to defeat the first ballot effort to prohibit abortion rights for women.
She began as a concerned volunteer in the struggle to desegregate the schools of Little Rock, and became an accomplished advocate for the rights of Arkansans and people everywhere.”[2]