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Dorothy Irene (Castonia) Collins was born on June 29, 1916, in Grandin, ND. Her family moved from farm to farm throughout the Great Depression. Following her graduation from high school in Wheaton, MN in 1934, Collins did clerical work and worked as a maid and a cook before moving to Fargo, ND in 1937, where she worked for National Securities. Six years later, Collins moved to California and began work at a handbag factory before enlisting in the U.S. Coast Guard Women’s Reserve (SPARS). She was stationed in Palm Beach, FL and St. Louis before ending her service in 1946.

The GI Bill made it possible for Collins to pursue higher education, which she was unable to do at the time of her high school graduation. She studied journalism at the University of Washington for one term in 1948, until she tested positive for tuberculosis and was admitted to Seattle’s Firland Sanatorium. When her tuberculosis did not improve on its own, Collins underwent thoracoplasty, a radical surgery in which several of her ribs were removed and her left lung was collapsed.

After Collins had recovered and was discharged from the sanatorium in 1950, she worked at KVOX Radio in Fargo before returning to the University of Washington. She served as the editor of the University of Washington Daily and as a campus radio broadcaster before graduating in 1954. She then returned to Fargo to be closer to family when she gave birth to her son, Ross, and began life as a single mother. She returned to Seattle with Ross and her mother, Mathilde, and worked at a suburban newspaper for a short time before moving to Moorhead, MN to write for the Daily News. Collins began to write a garden column in 1957, which continued after the Daily News folded into the Forum in Fargo.

In the late 1960s, Collins became the first woman at the Forum to work in general news. She also continued to write her weekly garden column. In 1976, she was selected as the newspaper’s Minnesota Editor. She retired from this position in 1981, but continued to write editorials and the garden column. Following her retirement, Collins travelled extensively overseas and began MLA coursework at Minnesota State University Moorhead, which she completed in 1994.

Collins was an active volunteer and member of many organizations, including St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Moorhead, Town and Country Garden Club, F-M Rose Society, Fine Arts Club, AAUW, Soroptimist, F-M Horticulture Society, PEO, Garden Writers of America, Birthright, and United Way of Cass-Clay. She was named a YMCA Woman of the Year in 1975. Collins continued to write her garden column until shortly before her death at age 92 on August 2, 2008.