she was born on january 18, 1891 to william frederic pendleton. he was the founding bishop of the general church of the new jerusalem. she received her bachelor of science degree from columbia university in 1914. as part of her graduate work at the university of virginia, in 1917-1918, she did parallax observations for prof. samuel alfred mitchell at the mccormick observatory. she was the dean of women at bryn athyn college from 1943 to 1958 and also headed the astronomy department.