[2]: 12 Ball was known as a tomboy and even coached a junior high school boys basketball team.
[2]: 13 During World War II, she worked at oil refineries as a chemist in Hobbs, New Mexico.
[2]: 13 She was married to Joseph P. Ball, who was a captain of the Kansas National Guard, but he died in World War I.
To make a living, she ran an antique store from her home and constructed and leased apartments on her property.
She began researching them in the 1940s and interviewed southwestern pioneers and Apaches at a time when there was no academic interest in those subjects or oral histories in general.
[6][3] Because of the strong relationship she gained with Apache member Daklugie (Geronimo's nephew and Juh's son), he gifted Ball his war club which he had hidden for 27 years as a POW and then recovered.
[2]: 9 She received the Golden Spur Award from the Western Writers of America in 1975 for the best non-fiction short story Buried Money, published in True West Magazine.
[2]: 69 On October 7, 1983, the United States Senate passed resolution S.Res.230 to commend Eve Ball.