This Texas composer ended up having far more many last names than she did compositions. Born to Tennessee parents Thomas Young Wright and his wife Sadie Louise Williams, Nell Wright grew up in Fort Worth, Texas. Her father was a commercial traveler, so often on the move. The 1900 census found the Wrights in Fort Worth, including Nell's siblings Joseph Oliver (9/12/1884) and Francis "Frannie" (12/1890), plus one live-in domestic. Around 1906 Nell married Ralph Grant Watson, and gave him two children, Ralph Wright (7/4/1907) and Joseph Oliver (2/15/1909) after her older brother. The 1910 enumeration taken in Fort Worth listed Ralph as a contracted house mover, and Nell with no occupation. Their son Herbert was born late in the year.

In January, 1911 tragedy struck as the Watson's son Ralph died at 3½. Nell had another son, William, in late 1912. The first of two known pieces by Nell, That Texas Rag, was published under her first married name by Philip Epstein in Fort Worth. The Watsons divorced within the next year. Then in mid-1914 she married A.C. Slaughter, releasing her second and final piece, Broncho Billy Rag, as Nell Wright Slaughter that same fall. It was published by the well-known house of Bush & Gerts in Dallas. In January of 1915 Nell gave birth to Clyde Slaughter, but he survived only four months, dying in May. Their daughter Francis was born in late 1916. The Slaughters divorced in 1917, and in September, 1918, Nell married oil driller Xenophon Scott Robson in Johnson County, Texas.

As of the 1920 census, Scott and Nell Robson were living in Fort Worth with Oliver, Herbert, William, Francis, and their infant twin sons Scott and Howard (2/1919). Something failed in this union as well, since Nell once again divorced, then remarried in the mid-1920s, this time to painter and contract decorator Donald Collins Coker. They were located in Fort Worth for the 1930 record, with Joe, Herbert, Billie and Francis. The disposition of the twins was not readily found, but they were not present. By 1931 the Fort Worth directory indicated that the Cokers were living apart, and Donald was soon remarried, found in the 1940 census in Fort Worth with his new wife.

Nell evidently decided that she had too many exes in Texas and opted for a change of venue. The next point at which she emerged was in Los Angeles, California, using her first married name of Nell Wright Watson. She was perhaps hoping to finally be lucky at love. On March 25, 1935, Nell got hitched again, this time to 65-year-old Nelson J. Reed, Jr. of New York. On the marriage certificate she trimmed her age a bit to 42, around six years off the mark. However, this time everything seemed to work, except longevity. It can be asserted that Reed was relatively well off, as neither Nelson or Nell showed an occupation for the 1940 census or any of the voter rolls. Nelson went first on September 30, 1945, dying at 74. Nell made it another 15 months, dying in Los Angeles in early 1947 at age 60.