her father was don carlos smith and the youngest brother of joseph smith the founder of the mormon church and so she was raised in the mormon community. her father died when she was only four months old and six months later, her mother became joseph smith's sixth plural wife. when joseph smith was murdered at the jail, she then became a plural wife of george smith, a cousin to the father. when the mormons were forced out in illinois, the mother chose not to follow at brigham young or from salt lake to utah. she came to california during a few years after the gold rush started. there's one story she told years later where she just started school in los angeles and was probably 15-years-old and she was walking along a road in los angeles in a very small community and she -- it was a very hot day and she came upon a newspaper clipping that had blown into her path and she picked it up and it was a profile of a california poet. she saw that this guy came to california from somewhere else else and wrote poetry about california and that was a revelation to her because when she came to california