[1] She was born Patricia Jo Clayton in Modesto, California,[2] and was raised in the area along with two sisters by her farmsteading parents.

Their parents arranged for all three children to attend college, and Jo graduated summa cum laude from the University of Southern California in 1963.

In 1969 she had a religious conversion and moved to New Orleans to join the Sisters of Mount Carmel, a Roman Catholic order of instructors.

At age 57 she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow, and died from her condition a year and a half later.

During her stay in the hospital she continued writing, completing a full novel and half of the last book in a trilogy.