Greeley was born on June 10, 1901, as Olive Adelia Troup in Maxwell, Iowa.[1] Her father was Martin H. Troup and her mother was Rose Adelia Randall.[2] Olive's mother died in 1908.[2] Her father remarried in 1947 to Inez Martin Troup, who became her stepmother.[3]
On June 10, 1937, she married Frederick Atwood Greeley in Riverside, California after meeting at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Solar Observing Station at Table Mountain.[1][4] In 1942, she traveled to Lima, Peru with her husband.[5] From 1943-1946, she served as bolometer assistant to Frederick Atwood Greeley at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory station at Mount Montezuma, Chile.[1] She also served as the assistant station director for the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Miami Solar Station in Miami, Florida, from May 1, 1947, to July 31, 1948.[1] During her position at the Table Mountain Station, Mount Montezuma Station, and the Miami Solar Station, she documented the day-to-day activities of the stations.[1]
