Betty O'Keefe was a Vancouver Province reporter for seven years in the 1950s, working as children's columnist, features writer and church editor. She then worked in corporate communications for 15 years and was commissioned to write two corporate biographies: Brenda: The Story of a Mine and The Mines of Babine Lake. Betty was the first woman to head the public-relations committee for the Mining Association of BC and the first woman to chair the information department of the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association.