Davida Foy was born in 1944 to Davida and Alfred Foy. She attended Litchfield High School and was active as a teenager with the newly-formed United Church of Christ's statewide youth Pilgrim Fellowship. She served as editor for their publication, Yankee Reporter. After graduating, she attended Marietta College in Ohio from 1963-1967, followed by Andover Newton Theological School from 1968-1972. She married Robert Crabtree in 1968 while still in seminary. Both trained for the Peace Corps in Libya but didn't go before completing their work at Andover Newton.

As a student in the late 1960s and early 1970s, she was deeply involved in the social change movements prevalent to this era. Much of the material she retained for this collection includes articles about social and political events and her involvement in them. Crabtree's focus as a young adult centered on spirituality, religion, and feminism. She blended this work as the director of the Prudence Crandall Center for Women (PCCW) in New Britain, Connecticut. While working as campus minister at Central Connecticut State University, Crabtree saw a pressing need for a women's center and so founded PCCW to provide a haven for those living through domestic violence. During this time, she also served on the United Church of Christ's Executive Council where she also championed women's issues.

In 1980, she was called to serve the Colchester Federated Church in Connecticut, where she served for 11 years. She married David T. Hindinger in 1982, becoming stepmother to his two children, Elizabeth and Todd. While serving Colchester, she attended Hartford Seminary for her Doctor of Ministry degree. Following her tenure at Colchester, she took on the role of conference minister for the UCC's Southern California Conference until she returned to serve as Connecticut's conference minister in 1996. Crabtree retired from the post in 2010. Following that, she has served as senior consultant to the officers of the national UCC (2011-13); interim senior advancement officer for Andover Newton (2011); acting conference minister for Missouri Midsouth Conference (2013); interim conference minister for Florida Conference (2013-2014); and interim vice president for institutional advancement at Andover Newton (2016-2017).