Eunice Mays Boyd was born in Oregon. She lived in Alaska for twelve years when she was married to George Lloyd Boyd. After a pregnancy that ended in a stillbirth, she divorced her husband and moved to Berkeley, California where she lived with her mother. She is the creator of 'F. Millard Smyth', a grocer and amateur sleuth in Fairbanks, Alaska. Her goddaughter, Elizabeth Reed Aden, discovered Eunice's unpublished novels and has published them.