Will,

The story is that she worked for the Pete Seeger family as a housemaid. Then they discovered she could do more than mop and she started a carreer at quite a ripe age.

She played the guitar back-handed -- that is, strung normal, but she fretted with the right hand and picked with the left.

Somebody may be able to fill you in with more -- why not try a serach on google.com?

rgrds CrzyBrd