She was born in Jackson, Mississippi, the daughter of Vernon Clifton Ellzey and Caroline Turnipseed.

She attended Newcomb College (1914–15), The New York School of Fine and Applied Arts (later to be renamed Parsons) in 1915-16, and The Art Students League in 1926,[1] where she studied with George Bridgman and Homer Boss.

Olive Leonhardt drew the covers for The Double Dealer: A National Magazine from The South in 1921-22 and showed at the New Orleans Arts and Crafts Club.

In 1938 Dale Press published a book of her drawings called "New Orleans: Drawn and Quartered" with a foreword by Lyle Saxon.

A revived interest in art of the 1930s has led to the 2012 show at The Hermitage Museum and Gardens in Norfolk, Virginia called "Drawn and Quartered: Olive Leonhardt, 1939 Revisited".