Dawn Langley Simmons began her life as a boy named Gordon Langley Hall, having been born in England before World War II. In his twenties Gordon moved to New York where he became a biographer and friend of many wealthy people. He inherited a small fortune and moved to Charleston, South Carolina. In 1968 he underwent one of the first sex-change operations and returned to the South as Dawn Langley Hall and soon married John-Paul Simmons.
From the guide to the The two lives of Baby Doe, 196?, (University of Minnesota Libraries. Literary Manuscripts Collections, Manuscripts Division [mss])