 West was a former actress and operetta singer.At the time that Buck met her, she was one of the very few female drama critics in the country, and the only one working in Chicago, where she wrote for the "Chicago Daily News".In his autobiography, Buck described her as "a small woman, plump, with keenly intelligent eyes, the most beautifully white teeth I have ever seen, and a red, laughing mouth", adding that she was "always good-natured."