Ianthe McGuinn was born Dolores Deleon in Ray, Arizona in 1942. (She changed her name to Ianthe shortly after her husband Jim McGuinn changed his middle name to Roger as they became followers of Subud.) After spending a childhood with her resilient and hard-working mother (she’s profiled in Songs My Mother Sang to Me, an oral history by Patricia Martin), she became involved with the 1960s folk music scene in Hollywood, California. During this experience, she met and later married Roger (aka Jim) McGuinn, who was on the threshold of fame and success as the founding member of his rock music group, the Byrds. After divorce and raising two young sons as a single mom, she later remarried and completed a nursing degree in her hometown of Tucson, where she currently writes stories and poetry.