Ingels wrote advertising copy in San Francisco and on the Monterey Peninsula, became an editor of Carmel, Pacific Grove, and Monterey newspapers and various publications, and wrote short stories and articles. She also wrote an unpublished novella entitled "Cannery Row" which focused on labor conditions and organizing. She died in Carmel in 1975.

Beth Ingels (Elizabeth Gladys Ingels) was born in Monterey on December 23, 1905 to Clyde Ingels and Edith S. Wettman. Her father purchased a ranch in Corral de Tierra, southeast of Monterey, where the family moved in 1917. Beth Ingels was a Monterey High School student of Susan Gregory, granddaughter of English merchant and educator William Hartnell and Teresa de la Guerra from a prominent early Spanish California family. Gregory, who taught English and Spanish, influenced Ingels to write and learn journalist skills when Gregory advised the student staff of the school yearbook, El Susurro. In the 1930s Ingels became friends with Carol and John Steinbeck. Steinbeck was also a friend of Susan Gregory, for whom he dedicated his novel Tortilla Flat. Gregory shared stories with Steinbeck about her "paisano" neighbors and Ingels told stories of Corral de Tierra which influenced Steinbeck's Pastures of Heaven. Ingels also participated in social gatherings at Ed Rickett's Lab.

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