She came to prominence after becoming the inspiration for one of the main characters in John Berendt's 1994 true-crime book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

Boles, of Gullah tongue,[3] was renamed "Minerva" in the book, and was portrayed by Irma P. Hall in Clint Eastwood's 1997 film adaptation.

[1] At an early age, Boles became a baptized member of the Deep Creek Missionary Baptist Church in Islandton.

[1] Boles was in a common-law marriage[6] with Percy H. Washington (1890–1973), a root doctor known as Dr. Eagle[7] (renamed Dr. Buzzard in the film version of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil) with whom she had one child: Anthony Ray Fennell (1954–2019).

[1][8] Boles took over Washington's practice, which doubled as their 1950-built 1408 Congress Street home in Beaufort, South Carolina,[9] after his death in 1973.

'"[5] Although he appeared in the book, Sonny Seiler, a former attorney from Savannah, Georgia,[16] played Judge Samuel L. White in the film (his own role being filled by Australian actor Jack Thompson).

"[5] During the 1980s, Boles often visited Savannah's Forsyth Park, a block south of the Mercer House home of Jim Williams, the main character in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and whom Seiler represented for the final three of Williams' four trials for the shooting of Danny Hansford, for which he was accused of murder.