The family moved around "living in tenements, boxcars, ranch shacks, and through one severe Colorado winter we had survived in a canvas tent."

In the early 1930s the couple moved to the Philippines and Panlilio gave birth to three children: a daughter, Rae (born c. 1932) and sons, Edward (b. c. 1935) and Curtis (b. c. 1938).

She was fearless and flamboyant, dressing in a sharkskin suit or brightly colored pants to flout her defiance of the conventional Filipino (and American) idea of a woman's role.

[3] On 8 December 1941, the day Japanese forces began invading the Philippines, she was in Baguio working with local reporter James Halsema.

Marking was told by American advisors to "lay low" and organize and train until the U.S. invasion of the Philippines (October 1944), an order contrary to his aggressive and independent spirit.

[12] During her time with the guerrillas Panlilio suffered many health problems: a limp from a leg broken in a pre-war automobile accident, a heart condition, frequent bouts with malaria, and infected teeth.

[14] In February 1945 during the Battle of Manila, the Marking Guerrillas captured former Philippine President Emilio Aguinaldo, a collaborator with the Japanese.

[15] The singular achievement of the Marking Guerrillas was the participation of the "Yay Regiment" in May 1945 along with several thousand American soldiers in an operation to prevent the Japanese from destroying the Ipo Dam, an important water source for the city of Manila.

In the view of the U.S. Army historian, the Yay Regiment, which suffered 40 dead, deserved "the lion's share of the credit for the capture of the Ipo Dam.

"[16][17] In February 1945, before the time of the Ipo Dam fight, Panlilio had left the Marking's Guerrillas and went to Manila to see her old friend Carlos Romulo.

Marking wrote her frequently, informing her that the Yay Regiment was now a brigade and that he wanted her back with him, even sending her 1,250 US dollars contributed by the guerrillas.

Marking came to the United States in August 1945 and they were married on 11 September 1945 in Mexico (the site being chosen because their marital status with other partners was uncertain).

Panlilio's memoir, The Crucible, was published in 1950, and she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by U.S. President Harry S. Truman the same year.