Tuck was the Valedictorian for the 50th reunion of Kemper High School in Carroll Iowa, and she received an award for outstanding service to her community from Marycrest College for her years of service at Saint Louis University, at the College Church, and in her entire community, where she was beloved by many.

After retiring in 2001, Tuck volunteered extensively at the College Church Outreach Program, which was a program she held in great esteem. The program assists in providing birth certificates and state IDs for people with limited resources in St. Louis. She also volunteered at the Hawken House, a historical home in Webster Groves. She continued writing and researching Henri Chatillon, guide and hunter for the American Fur Company of St. Louis in the 1840s.

In 1989, Tuck joined the faculty of American Studies at Saint Louis University, eventually becoming department chair. She promoted work in social justice and international studies. She was part of an international coalition establishing an American Studies program in Utrecht, the Netherlands, where she also taught classes during the mid-90s. Wayne went to join her for a month in Utrecht on what was his first and only trip out of the country. 

Tuck returned to academia at the age of 46, when she became the administrative assistant for the comparative literature department at Washington University. She then went on to earn her PhD in comparative literature in 1987, writing a dissertation comparing the medieval Japanese novel The Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki with Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past.

After graduating, she and Wayne were married in 1952. She worked as a reporter at Quad-City Times. Upon moving to St. Louis in 1962, she taught journalism classes at Webster University and was Advisory Editor for The Web and The Broadside, journals at Webster College.

She was the first in her family to go to college, attending Marycrest College, an all-girls school in Davenport. St. Ambrose College, an all-boys school at the time, was nearby, and it was there that she met Wayne, who was studying voice there. She earned her bachelor's degree in journalism.

Tuck was born on August 11th, 1930 in Carroll Iowa to Laura and Cyril Mescher. She was their only child and was the valedictorian at Kemper High School in Iowa, the local Catholic high school.