Fletcher was born May 10, 1914, in Comanche, Oklahoma, to Lucinda Ellis and John Wesley Ford.
[5] Fletcher told Congress that due to family circumstances after the massacre, she left school after the 4th grade.
[5] The oldest known living survivor of the massacre (several months older than Lessie Benningfield Randle, who was born later the same year, 1914), Fletcher reportedly still sleeps sitting up on her couch with the lights on.
[9] She was crowned a queen mother and given several Ghanaian names, including Naa Lamiley, which means, "Somebody who is strong.
Somebody who stands the test of time", Naa Yaoteley, which means "the first female child in a family or bloodline", and Ebube Ndi Igbo.
[6][11] In 1932, at the age of 18, she married Robert Fletcher and moved with him to California, where they both worked in shipyards, Viola as an assistant welder.
[1] They returned to Oklahoma after World War II and raised three children while she worked cleaning houses.