Her father was a lawyer and "prominent citizen and jurist"[6] in Des Moines who had served in the American Civil War.

[6] Connor attended Des Moines public schools until eleventh grade[7] and then continued her education abroad.

[5] Starting in 1923, Connor made her living as a drafter for a series of architects, including T. Beverly Keim in Los Angeles, Allen & Collens in Boston, Soule & Murphy in Santa Barbara, and Reginald D. Johnson, W. L. Risley and Allison & Allison, all in Los Angeles.

[5] Connor was licensed to practice architecture in California in 1936 and opened her own firm in Pasadena in October of that year.

Connor also worked as an associate architect with the firm of Orr, Strange & Inslee on the project to build Fuller Theological Seminary in 1953.

[9] Connor was a member of Union Internationale des Femmes Architectes (UIFA)[3] and was elected to the national board of Association for Women in Architecture in 1958.

[3] In 1964 Connor lost vision in her left eye due to temporal arteritis, and gave up her practice on the advice of her physicians.

[10] She died on December 29, 1970, in Claremont and was buried in the family plot in Woodland Cemetery in her hometown of Des Moines.