Hi, Folkie101. Yeah, she was playing barre chords early on. In her autobiography, And a Voice to Sing With, there is a photo of her at age seventeen playing what appears to be a Goya G-10 classic (good beginner's guitar), and she's barring the 5th fret. It looks like she's playing an Am chord (Em form, barred on the 5th fret), although in the photo, I can't locate one of her fingers!

Don Firth