Jeanette Jones Pierce was born on a farm in southwest Arkansas and grew up among hay fields, bovines, and pines. She received her BS degree in education with a major in English from Southern State College (now Southern Arkansas University), Magnolia, Arkansas. She later received her MA in English from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas.
All of her teaching has been in The Lone Star State. She retired after teaching English in public schools for twenty-seven years. Then she taught English in Christian high schools for three years, two of which were at the Presbyterian boarding school in Kingsville, Texas, established in 1911 by Henrietta King, wife of Richard King, the millionaire King Ranch icon. Finally she taught freshman writing at Texas A & M University at Kingsville, Texas for two years.
Jeanette was married to the late John Pierce for 58 years. She has two adult children and five grandchildren.