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Della Gould Emmons is a member of the Gould family who pioneered in the jewelry and theatrical businesses in Glencoe, Minnesota. A University of Minnesota graduate, she taught in high school at Sisseton, South Dakota. Marrying a train dispatcher, Allen B. Emmons, she went westward until finally Seattle and Tacoma became her home. She satisfied her urge for theatrical work by writing plays and pageants for radio, schools and churches. This led to her novel, "Sacajawea of the Shoshones," which was filmed as "The Far Horizons" by Paramount.
Della's brother, showman Jay Gould and his family of nine performing children traveled summers in mid-America with a fleet of white buses as the Jay Gould Million-Dollar Circus, which is described in her fourth book, "Jay Gould's Million-Dollar Gems." As a young man in the early 1900s, Jay bought a motion-picture projector for two gold watches and five dollars, started the Crystal Theatre in 1909, then traveled to small towns playing films, selling musical instruments and giving music lessons to mid-western schoolchildren. It is believed Jay may have inspired Meredith Willson's character, "The Music Man."
In her second book, "Nothing in Life is Free," an Indiana couple join the famous Naches Pass wagon train lured by the offer of free land in Washington Territory. Her third book "Leschi of the Nisquallies" served as the source for the Indian fishing rights in their court trials.
Della was adopted by the Lummi tribe and given the name "Selequal" (Maiden of the Great Calm). She served as curator for the Washington State Historical Society and was an International Honorary member of Beta Sigma Phi.
