Mrs. Clayton, born Violet Mae Steele, was born in Moline, and raised in Rock Island, Illinois. She was the seventh of ten children born to her Native American mother and Welch father. She lived most of her life in river towns along the Mississippi River.

The fabric of her life was woven with the threads of social stigmatism and adversity. Multiple marriages, divorces, a limiting eighth grade education, single parenthood, poverty and racism were leading players in her life’s story. Nevertheless during her lifetime she used her native intelligence so well that she managed to own a bakery, a restaurant, a waste disposal service, a stock car racing track, a car wrecker service, a scrap yard, a chauffeur service, an insurance adjusting service, and real estate. All this was in addition to working in various factories and driving a semi- truck. She was the personification of the American Dream.

Mrs. Clayton was a "liberated woman" long before it was fashionable. She knew how to completely rebuild and repaint her personal Harley Davidson 80, build a house and speak to City Hall meetings. She grew her own garden, pickled and canned her food and raised livestock. Her customary style was a pair of jeans with a shirt that had pockets and bobbed hair but she presented a stunningly attractive figure in a business suit as well. She was plucky, opinionated and unafraid to throw a punch. She might have been dubbed the belle of the "Show-Me" State but she didn’t have time for pretension. She was a comedian at heart who loved to embrace an unexpected moment of laughter. She was Annie Oakley and Lucille Ball combined — the child her mother hadn’t quite expected; had tried to give up for adoption, then had second thoughts.

She came to be known as Ultra-Violet because she wasn’t afraid to live. She lived graciously and harmoniously with the attention and controversy her unique personality attracted. Being born into a politically incorrect ethnic group during the oppressive Great Depression of the 1930's was a challenge she wrestled with daily. She could have been anyone or no one. But she chose to be Ultra-Violet.