Olive Reed was born on January 19, 1863, in Iowa to Enos Reed and Louisa A. Walker. Her father was a farmer who owned $4,000 of real estate and $600 of personal property by 1870. The family moved to Liberty, Kansas, in the 1860s, and then to Palmyra, Kansas, in the 1870s. She never married, and she earned a living as a teacher. She remained in her parents’ household until at least 1900. She moved to Kansas City, Missouri, in the early 1900s. By 1930, she was living with her brother Walker in Blue, Missouri. They moved to Independence, Missouri, in the 1940s. She died of “bronco pneumonia” in Independence on June 11, 1954.