her childhood consisted of multiple hardships. at three years old, her mother died after giving birth to her third child, and her father deserted the family. leta and her sisters were then raised by their maternal grandparents — samuel thomas danley (1833–1898) and mary (1838–1904) — on their farm. after ten years of absence, leta's father remarried and forced the children to leave their grandparents and move to valentine, nebraska to live with him and their stepmother. leta described the experience of living there as a "fiery furnace" due, in part, to the alcoholism that plagued the household and the verbal and emotional abuse inflicted upon the children by their stepmother. school was her only refuge from this abusive home life. in her early education, leta described her education as a one-room school where she received excellent education which was individualized. leta attended valentine high school where she excelled in the classroom and discovered her talent and passion for writing. her overall intelligence, wit, and humor were made evident when she was hired at age fifteen to write weekly columns in the town newspaper, "the valentine democrat." she was able to make her final escape from home in 1902 when she graduated from valentine high school.