She was the first woman licensed to practice architecture in Virginia, although other female architects such as Ethel Furman had previously been active in the state.

She received a bachelor's degree in mathematics at Randolph-Macon Woman's College in 1929, and expressed a desire to study architecture at the University of Virginia, as had her brother.

Second in her class, she won the Baird Prize Competition Medal, the first woman to receive the honor.

Returning to Portsmouth, she took a position with the firm of Rudolph, Cooke, and Van Leeuwen in Norfolk; unsalaried for two years, she nevertheless gained a great deal of experience, working on a team that designed numerous civic buildings including the city's federal courthouse.

The birth of her first child led her to restrict her work to residential and ecclesiastical projects; even so she kept her license until 1990, and was developing architectural drawings until after she turned 80.