Fonda moved to Rolla, MO when she was 11 years old. She was educated in schools there and was a member of Christian Church. Fonda was operated on for a goiter on Sept. 27, 1921 and never rallied.766

Death Certificate names her parents as James M. Grimm, b. Bearsville, WV, and Mandane Lowther, b. Bearsville, WV. It gives Husband as Moses Dunham, and says Fonda was born June 14, 1891 in Salem, WV.