Annie Edson Taylor was born on October 24, 1838, in Auburn, New York. She was one of eight children born to Merrick Edson (1804–1850) and Lucretia Waring; her father owned a flour mill and died when she was 12 years old, leaving enough money to provide a comfortable living for the family. She became a schoolteacher (she received an honors degree in a four-year training course). During her studies, she met David Taylor. They were married and had a son who died in infancy. Her husband died soon after. After she was widowed, she spent her working years in between jobs and locales.

Eventually, she ended up in Bay City, Michigan, where she hoped to be a dance instructor. Since there were no dance schools in Bay City at that time, Taylor opened her own. She moved to Sault Ste. Marie in 1900 to teach music. From there, she traveled to San Antonio, Texas, then she and a friend went to Mexico City to find work. Unsuccessful, she returned to Bay City.

On October 24, 1901, her 63rd birthday, the barrel was put over the side of a rowboat, and Taylor climbed in, along with her lucky heart-shaped pillow. After screwing down the lid, friends used a bicycle tire pump to compress the air in the barrel. The hole used for this was plugged with a cork, and Taylor was set adrift near the American shore, south of Goat Island.

She spent her final years posing for photographs with tourists at her souvenir stand, attempting to earn money from the New York Stock Exchange, briefly talking about taking a second plunge over the cataracts in 1906, attempting to write a novel, re-constructing her 1901 plunge on film (which was never seen), working as a clairvoyant, and providing magnetic therapeutic treatments to local residents.

Taylor died on April 29, 1921, aged 82, at the Niagara County Infirmary in Lockport, New York, and was interred next to English-born daredevil Carlisle D. Graham (1886–1905) in the “Stunter’s Rest” section of Oakwood Cemetery in Niagara Falls, New York. Her funeral was held on the 5th of May, 1921. She attributed her bad health and near blindness to her trip over the falls.