"[1] She was born in Norwalk, Ohio as "Ethel Lucretia Olcott" and died as "Vahdah Olcott-Bickford Revere", having married twice.

She started guitar lessons at the age of eight and then, by chance, met the classical guitarist George C. Lindsay and played for him when she was still just nine.

Ferrer invited her to stay with his family in Berkeley where he gave her daily lessons for a year until he died suddenly in 1904.

She then returned to her family and published her first major work, Theme for variations on Nel cor più non mi sento.

[5] In 1923, she moved back to Southern California and was instrumental in founding the American Guitar Society in Los Angeles.