Nancy (1939-2013) was born and raised in Columbia, Missouri, the daughter of Mildred Harrington Decker who was president of the Missouri Chapter of the League of Women Voters for a time in the 1950s, and John Decker, a political science professor at Stephens College. She graduated from Radcliffe College in 1961. She then studied for her master’s degree and doctorate at the University of California--Berkeley.
Nancy was a film critic and writer of biographies. She was honored by PEN America in 1987, with the PEN Girard Award for best nonfiction work by a previously unpublished female author.
Dougherty moved East in 1971, marrying her husband Jim. In 2001, they moved to Shelter Island.
