Molly Bellhouse was born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, the daughter of Elgar Bellhouse (Buller) Pagden, a one-time chairperson of the Progressive Party (PP) of Port Elizabeth who instilled liberal and progressive ideals in his daughter.

[1] Graduating from Rhodes with a BA Degree after finishing school in 1947 with a first class matriculation, Blackburn spent time teaching in London before settling in Belgium.

Seven years later however she returned to Port Elizabeth and joined the Black Sash, an activist group founded in 1955 by six women (Jean Sinclair, Elizabeth McLaren, Ruth Foley, Tertia Pybus, Jean Bosazza and Helen Newton-Thompson), but eventually she left due to what she perceived as the Sash's "inactivity".

In 1981 she started her political career by winning the Provincial Council seat of Walmer, Port Elizabeth, for the Progressive Federal Party (PFP).

At her funeral which was held at St John's Church in Port Elizabeth on 1 January 1986, a crowd of 20,000 mostly black South Africans gathered to mourn her loss.