[1] Born in Indianola, Iowa, she was the daughter of James Lytle Browne and his wife, the former Harriet Lindsay.

She attended Simpson College before transferring to study voice at Drake University.

[1] She married Henry Agard Wallace in Des Moines, Iowa, on May 20, 1914.

A small inheritance she received from her parents enabled the Wallaces and their business partners to establish, in 1926, the Hi-Bred Corn Company,[3][4] which developed and distributed hybrid corn and eventually transformed agriculture.

On February 22, 1981, aged 92, she died at the Wallace estate, Farvue Farm,[5] in South Salem, New York.