[1][2] Her childhood was spent in Oregon at a lumber camp, and she started to learn music when she received a year's worth of free piano lessons along with a $5 clarinet.
During her final year at Elmira Union, the high school's band went to the Northwest Music Educators Conference.
Wright won the Tau Beta Sigma "National Award for Service to Music" at the University of Michigan in 1971.
The award "recognizes the contributions made by distinguished female conductors, composers, educators, administrators, artists, and clinicians" who have helped promote bands as a "musical art form".
The day before her February 6 induction ceremony, she was the honored guest conductor of the Troy State University Symphony Band.