Plain Anne Ellis builds on Life of an Ordinary Woman, Anne Ellis's memoir of life in one of Colorado's most overlooked regions, the San Luis Valley. Ellis describes herself as an ordinary widow with few financial resources trying to make a living in an inaccessible valley. But Ellis was far from ordinary: she raised children on her own and sent them to college. She worked as a cook, and as the only woman on telephone line and road building crews, and she successfully ran for county treasurer.