 Nellie Irene Snyder was born on June 20, 1905 to Albert Benton Snyder and Grace Bell McCance Snyder, in a sod house in northwest Lincoln County Nebraska.At the age of two weeks she was carried on horseback to a ranch in McPherson County Nebraska.She suffered a childhood illness that permanently damaged her spine and slowed her growth resulting in her diminutive height of 4 feet,8 inches.