Nola May Karr was born on 09 July 1923 in Wilson Township near the town of Wapella, in DeWitt County, Illinois, a daughter of Frank Karr and Dottie Muirheid.(7.46) She attended three years of college at the Illinois State University and then, in March 1945, accepted a civil service appointment with the War Department. She was assigned to the Quartermaster Corp in Washington, D.C. She later transferred to the Post Office Department. In her later years with the Postal Service, she edited technical manuals and other publications. Nola retired after thirty-two years of service on 31 August 1978. She continued to work after retiring from the Post Office Department, taking a job at the Automated Graphic Systems printing firm near Port Tobacco, Maryland.