Elnora Evelyn Briggans Ford was born on October 11, 1920, in Independence, Kansas. She grew up near Coffeyville, graduated from Kansas State Teachers College in Pittsburg, and took her first teaching job in rural Wallace, Kansas, teaching the children of migrant workers. During World War II, she worked at the Kansas Army Ammunition Plant in Parsons and changed the spelling of her name to reflect her admiration for First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. In the mid-1940s she moved to Lebanon, Missouri, to teach at the Black Sumner School, which later moved to another building and was renamed after W.T. Vernon. She married Adolph Ford in Lebanon and had two children, Eva Blake Ledbetter and Dr. James Ford. In 1958, Eleanor Ford became the first African American educator in the newly integrated district. She served as librarian for elementary schools and spent the following twenty-seven years in the Lebanon school system. Known as an excellent storyteller, she positively impacted thousands of young lives with a love of books and learning and was active in many organizations, including Wyota Business and Professional Women's Club and the Mt. Lebanon United Methodist Church.