C.S. Merrill met Georgia O'Keeffe in August, 1973. For the following seven years she served O'Keeffe as librarian, secretary, cook, nurse, companion, confidante, reader, and caregiver. During the experience Merrill kept detailed accounts in her journal. Many of the stories from that time are told in her two books, one in poetry and one a prose transcription of her journal. Both are published by the University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, New Mexico.Merrill lives in New Mexico where she has been a teacher and librarian for 30 years. She was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1946. Merrill has a B.S. from the University of Tulsa and an M.A. from the University of New Mexico. Merrill received the 2010 Zia Award for non-fiction, history/biography from the New Mexico Press Women's organization. She was awarded the 1994 Witter Bynner Foundation Individual Poet grant. In 1979 Merrill's play Ever Since Yesterday Evening received a prize from the National Endowment for the Arts.