Frances Laurence was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where her inventor father, M.C. Rypinski, an electrical engineer with the Westinghouse Company, got the job of launching KDKA —- the world's first commercial radio station. She met husband Douglas in New York in 1945. When they relocated in Los Angeles, he managed and produced live comedy and musical acts; she named one The Continentals, and created their stage costumes. When he produced 400 fifteen minute transcribed radio shows with The Riders Of The Purple Sage, she wrote the lead-in and exit dialog for every song. The show won an award.

While Douglas moved from live to filmed entertainment at MGM, she raised three children, sewed, sculpted, painted, decorated movie stars' homes, designed products and began writing. Frances and Douglas recently celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary.

Her profiles and articles have been published in magazines and newspapers in the U.S. and abroad, and she has written two historical novels. Maverick Women is her first non-fiction book.