She received a B.A. in French from Millsaps College and then M.A.(1968) and Ph.D. (1973) in Comparative Literature and Ph.D. in Anthropology (2004) from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. After several years as a field archaeologist in Europe, in the late 1970s she supported humanities-oriented computing in Westfield College of the University of London. From 1979 to 2000 she worked at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, where she was an editor, historian, and manager of information systems and where from 1997 to 2000 she directed an NHPRC project to establish an electronic records program for the state of Mississippi.