Waldtraut Ella Ruth Nordstrom was born on 2 April , 1927 in Varzin/Germany. After World War II, she worked for a British Public Safety Department near Hamburg /Germany where I met Edward A. Nordstrom , then a Sgt in the USAF. We were married soon afterwards and I accompanied him to the US.

In 1977 she earned an M.A. degree in English from the University of Oklahoma which enabled her to teach on the college level and write for local newspapers and magazines.