 In 1915 her husband died of a brain tumor, leaving Harrison and her thirteen-year-old son deeply in debt from loans taken out by the father.In an effort to repay this debt, she turned her large home into a boarding house, which did not make ends meet.In 1915, despite having only one semester of college and no appropriate training, she used her brother-in-law's influence to get hired as an assistant society editor for "The Baltimore Sun".