born Jan. 12, 1910, Richmond, Ind., U.S.
died May 17, 1996, Alameda county, Calif.
U.S. linguist.
She studied with Edward Sapir at Yale University, where her dissertation was on Tunica, a moribund American Indian language . She continued her fieldwork on, and comparative studies of, American Indian languages, especially of the southeastern U.S., including the Natchez and Muskogean languages, for the rest of her life. She directed the Survey of California Indian Languages while on the University of California, Berkeley, faculty (1945–77). Many of her students have done invaluable descriptive work on nearly extinct languages.