Her father was a doctor, her uncle Sylvester Malone was a priest, and both men were among the founders of the New York Anti-Poverty Society.

[5] In 1909, she wore a large yellow sign advocating suffrage, on a solo march from Cooper Union, up Broadway, and along Fifth Avenue.

[8] She was often ejected for this act, fined,[9] and at least once convicted of creating a disturbance at a public meeting, and given a suspended sentence.

[10][11] In 1917 she picketed the White House as part of the Silent Sentinels in a campaign to get the Democratic Party to endorse women's suffrage.

She was arrested and sentenced to 60 days at the Occoquan Workhouse, where she was among the eleven women who unsuccessfully requested political prisoner status.