Marguerite Gilstrap was born in St. Paul, Madison County, Arkansas on February 2, 1907. Gilstrap graduated from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville with a bachelors of science in education degree in 1930. After graduation Gilstrap was employed as a teacher in Madison County at the Crescent College in Eureka Springs, Arkansas; and became the principal at St. Paul Consolidated High School. In 1935, Gilstrap had moved back to Fayetteville as a journalist for the local newspapers and the University of Arkansas News Bureau where she was the editor of theArkansas Alumnus. In 1942, she began working for the Farm Security Administration in Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1944, she moved to Washington, D.C. and began her career at the Department of Agriculture in its Division of Information. Gilstrap retired in 1966 and continued to live in Washington, D.C. where she remained active in All Souls Unitarian Church, National Press Club, National Board of YWCA, the Arkansas Alumni Association, River Park Mutual Homes, and Green Thumb, the first federally funded program promoting the importance of hiring, training, and retaining older workers. In May 1998, Gilstrap moved to Westlake, Ohio to be closer to her family. On November 3, 1998 Gilstrap, at the age of 91, died of kidney failure in Westlake, Ohio.