Born in Ferntown near Collingwood in the Nelson district of New Zealand to William and Jane Crook, she migrated to Australia in 1929, eventually moving to Townsville in northern Queensland, where she died at the age of 68.

[3] Devanny joined the Communist Party of Australia in the early 1920s, and had a long-term affair with the general secretary Jack Miles; called "Leader" in her memoirs.

[1] Despite the egalitarian ideals espoused by the ideology of Communism, the party leadership was dominated by men, who often stayed true to the idea that women's participation in politics was best left to a supporting role.

During the 1950s, she wrote many articles and stories, which documented many details about the region during the mid Twentieth Century, focusing on a range of themes, such as the relations between White Australians and Indigenous.

The Eddie Koiki Mabo Library at James Cook University, Townsville, holds copies of all of Devanny's published works in the North Queensland Collection.

Many of Devanny's private papers, consisting of drafts of speeches, published and unpublished articles, personal communications and letters, are held in the Library's Special Collections.