The only daughter of William and Carrie (Block) Ullmann, FUD was born in Springfield, Missouri, on March 17, 1904. After attending the local public schools, she studied for a year at nearby Drury College before entering Wellesley College in 1921. There she majored in English literature and after graduation in 1925 worked as a secretary to Emily Newell Blair, author, columnist for Good Housekeeping, and vice-chairman of the Democratic National Committee. In the fall of 1929 she went to work for Macmillan and later for Coward McCann. By 1931 FUD had become editor of National Parent Teacher Magazine and was successively the editor (1941-1947) of Calling All Girls, the first popular mass circulation magazine for teenagers; executive editor (1949-1951) of Child Study Magazine ; managing editor (1951-1954) of The Encyclopedia of Child Care and Guidance ; and executive editor (1954-1969) of the Junior Literary Guild, a book club for boys and girls.
In addition to writing magazine articles and doing free-lance editorial work, FUD compiled and edited Never To Be Forgotten (1943) and When Mother Was A Girl (1964), collections of stories for teenage girls; Girl Alive (1947), a guidance book for adolescent girls; two booklets entitled Getting Along With Brothers and Sisters (1950) and Life With Brothers and Sisters (1952); and A Very, Very Special Day (1963), a book for young children. FUD occasionally used the pen name Joan Douglas. After 1969 she worked as a free-lance editor.
FUD was married to David W. DeArmand in 1942. They had no children. She died on April 14, 1984, at their home in New York.
From the guide to the Papers, 1901-1985, (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute)
