She grew up in Colfax, Washington where her father, William Leroy LaFollette Jr., was an attorney and politician and her mother was the daughter of the Congregational Church missionary.
A firm believer in learning through doing, she founded InterAlp, a program that sent American high school students abroad to live with local families in Greece and Kenya.
[2] Along with her husband, John Summerskill, she founded LaFollette Vineyard in the Belle Mead section of Montgomery Township, New Jersey.
During the 1992 presidential campaign, Bill Clinton spent a day at the LaFollette Vineyard discussing political strategy with fourteen Democratic governors and their staffs.
[4] She authored four books: Aegean Summer, Seduced by a Greek Island, Daughter of the Vine, and The Land of Solomon and Sheba.