Scarlet fever
Edgerton was born in Nebraska, she became a Christian when she was 10 years old. After graduating from high school she went to Chicago to study music. She became very sick there with Scarlet fever, and went deaf. She recovered, however, and regained her hearing. After that incident she attended and graduated from Moody Bible Institute. Linguistic training began in 1943 with the Summer Institute of Linguistics taught by Drs. Kenneth L. Pike and Eugene A. Nida. Eugene Nida personally mentored Edgerton in her early linguistic inquiries. She continued with full-time field work and intensive summer studies with other linguists. In 1958 she participated in a seminar on the Athapaskan languages of North America held in Norman, OK under Dr. Harry Hoijer. The following year she prepared for publication her findings on the sentence structure in Western Apache. In 1964 she also participated in a translation workshop in Ixmiquilpan, Mexico. with Dr. Robert Longacre.