[4] She was born on March 8, 1911, in Pictou, Nova Scotia, Canada, one of six children, having three brothers and two sisters.

[5] She was credited with saving scores of people off the Scituate Coast, near Boston, Massachusetts, when she lived there in a home on the Beach.

In one of the worst storms of the season, with the French Coast in sight, due to rough seas, she gave up after swimming 16 hours.

[8] On 9 October 1941 she was in a car accident in Wiscasset, Maine that killed Michael Tonely, her swimming coach and trainer.

[1] She died on March 17, 1985, after a long illness, in Brockton, Massachusetts at Cardinal Cushing Hospital, and was survived by her husband Peter.