Grace Pearl Ingalls

 Grace Pearl Ingalls was born May 23, 1877 in Burr Oak, Iowa, she was the younger sister of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Grace studied to become a teacher, she attended Redfield College. I worked as a teacher in the town of Manchester seven miles from De Smet, where my parents lived. On October 16, 1901, Nathan married William Dow, but the couple had no children. Grace was 24 and Nathan was 42. Later Grace also worked for some local newspapers, following her sister Carrie's lead and caring for Mary, who is blind and without parents. When Laura was writing the book series, Grace helped her recall some facts and described in vivid detail the Dakota wildflowers, of which Laura remembered nothing. In 1932 she was admitted to a Huron hospital for "severe diabetes". Her sister Carrie came to visit for a while, bringing a copy of Little House in the Big Woods to entertain her sister. Diabetic, died in 1941 at the age of 64.