I grew up in Warrensburg, MO, a town of fewer than 10,000, southeast of Kansas City, MO. My parents and grandparents owned farms in addition to having various businesses and professions.. When my mother died in 1989, I inherited two farms which my husband and I operated for several years, while living in Fayetteville, AR where we both taught at the University of Arkansas. I also replaced my mother as a board member at the Bank of Leeton, MO after she died..

Both of my parents were faculty members at what was then Central MO State College. My father, Noel Grinstead, taught Industrial Arts, and he designed a building on the CMSC campus that was named for him. My mother, Berne Heberling Grinstead, taught mathematics at CMSC and in high school. I attended the College Elementary School and graduated as valedictorian from Warrensburg High School in 1962. I completed a B.S. in Education in May of 1965 from Central Missouri State College. I continued to graduate school where I received a N.D.E.A. fellowship to study sociology and anthropology at the University of Missouri where I received my M.A. with honors in 1967. In 1969, before completing my Ph..D., I took a faculty position at the University of Arkansas where I stayed until my retirement in 2012.

I had little idea about what I would do for my dissertation. As luck would have it, when I moved to Fayetteville, I met Bernal Green, an agricultural economist, employed by the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  Bernal was stationed at the University of Arkansas and was leading a large interdisciplinary study  that focused on labor adjustment in the Mississippi Delta.  My dissertation was a community study of a small Delta town that had elected Arkansas' first African American mayor.  I witnessed boycotts, Klan marches, and other civil rights activities in 1971--the most violent year since Reconstruction. 

I authored or co-authored 67 publications and gave presentations at professional meetings.. I worked with others to document health care in Arkansas. In mid-career, my husband and colleague, William Schneider along with Johnnie Roebuck watched and wrote about the Wal-Mart annual meeting as it moved from a small gathering in a high school cafeteria to a lavish festival held in the University of Arkansas' basketball arena.

I chaired the Department of Anthropology for nearly a decade. I served on various University Committees, and was elected to Faculty Chair (1986-1987) and Campus Council (1987-1988). I received the Alumni Distinguished Faculty Service Award for Teaching (1995), was elected to the Teaching Academy (1993), received a Master Teacher Award from Fulbright College (1986), and was elected as the Fulbright College Woman of Exceptional Promise (1984).

On February 20, 1975, I married William M. Schneider, a fellow anthropologist at the University of Arkansas. I gained two stepsons, Daniel and Michael, and in 1978, 1980 and 1982 I had three children, Anne (Annie), Rebekah (Bekah) and Jacob (Jake). I am proud of them all. Both stepsons became physicians as did Annie. At this writing, Jake is a lawyer in Philadelphia. I am proud of each of these children and, of course, my grandchildren.