She was born on the "Pilkington place" about one mile east of the Stidham farm and was the only child of the family not born on the old homestead. When she was six years old the family moved to a farm two miles east of Buda, Ill. She began her school work at the Haley school in the country. Later the family moved into the town and she attended the public schools there. After her parents moved to Urbana, Ill. in 1893 she took some work at the University of Illinois. She later took nurses training at Wesley Hospital in Chicago, and for a time was Superintendent of Nurses. In 1918 she was visiting nurse for a private charity in New Jersey. After this she was in charge of hospitals of a large copper mining company at Douglas and Bisbee, Arizona. In 1921-1924 she was supervising nurse at the Olive View Tuberculosis Sanitorium in Los Angeles Co., Calif.

She had fairly good health but was troubled with some throat infection and in later life with arthritis and other bone disorders.

[From surviving correspondence between Francis Brode and Howard Brode, Arletta started her own TB sanitorium in the Lancaster, Calif. area in 1925, and then apparently caught TB herself and was a resident of L.A. county long-term care facilities for several years before she died. There were financial imbroglios involving her mother's estate (her house near USC) and Arletta's own Lancaster property, on which a second mortgage had been given to L.A. County. Arletta aligned herself with brother Arthur against the other brothers; unfortunately Arthur and Arletta come off as the bad guys.]