 Musick began her college teaching career at Iowa's William Penn College, Oskaloosa, Iowa in 1942; two years later she became a member of the faculty of Iowa Wesleyan College.In 1946 she moved to West Virginia to accept a teaching position at Fairmont State College now Fairmont State University where she continued to teach until her retirement in May 1967.She felt that the Appalachian region surrounding the college was ripe for fieldwork in folklore, and the college in need of courses on folk literature.