Born in Rutherford on April 26, 1900 and was one of nine children. Her parents were Charles Tasker Crosson and Sallie Alice Davis Crosson. She earned a B.S. degree in education at Boston Teachers College in 1934 and a master's degree in educational administration from Boston University in 1954. She was one of the first African-American female schoolteachers in Boston and, in 1935, she developed the city’s first remedial reading program. She was known for her extremely innovative teaching methods and was an early advocate of black history education.