She attended college at the University of Missouri–Kansas City, graduating in 1968[1] with a major in Romance Languages.

[2] Jiles moved to Toronto, Canada in 1969, where she worked for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation[2] and, subsequently, helped set up native language, FM radio stations with indigenous peoples in the far north of Ontario and Quebec for the next 10 years.

[3] In the process, she learned the Ojibwe language spoken by the Anishinaabeg peoples in Ontario and elsewhere.

[4] After several years of travel, including living in Mexico, the couple resettled in San Antonio in 1995, buying a house in the historical district.

[2] Since her divorce in 2003, Jiles has lived on a 36-acre ranch near Utopia, Texas, about 80 miles west of San Antonio.