Her father, Philo, was a professor of philosophy of education;[1] her mother, Madonna, was an American English teacher before becoming a homemaker.
Her family moved to Rochester, Minnesota, when she was five years old, then relocating to Connecticut after she completed elementary as well as middle school.
[2][3] MacLachlan first worked as an English teacher at Bennett Junior High School in Manchester, Connecticut from 1963 until 1979.
[2] It was adapted as a TV movie by the same name in 1991, starring Glenn Close and Christopher Walken, with MacLachlan as one of its screenwriters.
[2][4] She resided in western Massachusetts[12] and kept a small bag of dirt from the prairies to call to mind her Wyoming roots.