Her parents, Owen and Priscilla, married early in their relationship and lived in a back-to-nature hippie commune in Caldecott County, Mississippi. Born as Anna Marie, she also enjoyed the attentions of her Aunt Carrie, on her mother's side. Anna Marie was raised speaking colloquial English and French, common to the Mississippi bayou area. The commune's failed attempt to use Native American mysticism to reach the "Far Banks" resulted in Priscilla's disappearance. Carrie took over Anna's care, and in her grief at the loss of her sister, was a strict and authoritarian guardian. Anna Marie was a rebellious child and, at some point, the exact event or reasons still unclear, she ran away from home as a young teenager.