Annetta A. Childs was born in New York and came to Cleveland, Oklahoma, with her husband, William Oscar Childs, in 1904 before moving to Tulsa in 1926, where her husband was engaged in the contracting and oil business for many years. It was during the years following that she became well known in Tulsa as a philanthropist and civic worker. She was particularly known as the donor of three separate sets of Celesta-Chimes to the University of Oklahoma in Norman in 1950 and to both the Scottish Rite Temple at Guthrie and the George Washington Memorial Chapel at Alexandria, Virginia, in 1955. These gifts were made in memory and honor of her husband who had died in 1935. Both she and her husband were active members of the Masonic order during their lifetimes.