Cora Anne Stroud Jenkins was born on February 10, 1902 in Moody, Indian Territory, near Tahlequah, as a third child of John Walter Stroud and Mary Jane Hill Stroud. John Walter Stroud was a sharecropper on leased land and Cora grew up on her parents farm. She started her education at the age of four at a one room subscription school together with her two older sisters, Rhoda and Delorah. Cora graduated from the seventh grade, and in 1929, without her parents consent, left for Tahlequah where she got her first job in the Holland House--a catering business. On December 12, 1931, Cora married Raymond Jenkins, had a daughter Laurel LaVerne in 1933, and divorced her husband five years later. She held various positions during these years at: Ft. Worth Pipe and Supply Company; Safeway General Office, Oklahoma City; Douglas War Plant; St. Johns Hospital, Tulsa, Oklahoma, (where she received nurse's training); Pritchard Oil Company; and finally St. Joseph Hospital, Houston, Texas, where she worked from 1957 to 1966. She had lived in Bentonville from 1968 until her death in 1983. Cora Anne Jenkins pursued her education throughout her adult life. She attended the Adult Education Program at Tulsa Public Schools in 1952, she held a diploma in Interior Decorating from LaSalle Extension University, a certificate from Medical Self Help Training Course, and also participated in the scholarship program at Liberty Baptist College, Lynchburg, Virginia in 1977- 1978.

Jenkins was an active member of Bella Vista County Club, Bella Vista, Arkansas, the Welcome Wagon Club of Bentonville, Arkansas, a member of the Martha Chapter of Eastern Star, the James Bright Chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution, and the Northwest Arkansas Genealogy Club. She was also awarded membership in the National Songwriters Guild in 1971.

Cora engaged in genealogy research of her maternal and paternal ancestors and compiled an impressive volume of family records in that process. She also wrote poetry, short stories, song lyrics, a number of which have been put to music, published and recorded. She was an ardent collector of food recipes and created several recipe scrapbooks. She wrote an unpublished autobiography of her first 30 years of life and a very detailed biography of her daughter Laurel LaVerne's first twelve years.

Cora Anne also ventured into the field of invention and had "Presto Space Age Diaper" registered as a trade mark in 1964.