Leola Seely Anderson was born on June 19, 1910, to Arta McLean Seely and Alfaretta Neff in what is now Salt Lake City, Utah. She was the fourth of five children and the second of two daughters.

Seely excelled in school and subsequently skipped several grades, graduating high school in 1927. She attended Brigham Young University (BYU) and graduated with a degree in education in 1933. After graduation, she moved to Brigham City, where her family then lived, and taught there for several years – notably teaching the eventual President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) Boyd K. Packer who referred to her as “My dear little teacher!”.

Seely returned to BYU for a master's degree and met H. Duane Anderson, whom she married on June 2, 1936. Together, they had two sons: Richard Bryan in 1941 and Duane Brent in 1945. The family lived in Price, where Richard was born, and Ogden, where Brent was born, before moving to San Bernardino, California.

In California, Seely taught English at San Bernardino Valley College with her husband. Seely published several short stories while living in California. During this time, she began work with Boyd K. Packer on the creation of an early morning seminary for LDS high school students (which is still instituted today). In 1963, she and Duane headed a BYU study abroad that toured Europe.

In early spring of 1967, Duane Anderson was called to serve as the mission president of the LDS France Mission. The couple arrived in France in June of 1967. A year later, on June 16, 1968, while returning from business in the south of France, their car was struck by a speeding vehicle that had swerved into their lane, and Leola was killed.