From her earliest childhood Sallie Stein wanted to be a missionary to the Chinese people. In preparation for this work she attended schools in Virginia and Tennessee. She was a governess and a schoolteacher until 1878, when she was appointed to Canton, China under the auspices of the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. Due to lack of funds, she was unable to begin her work until 1880, when she sailed from San Francisco on February 7, arriving at Canton on March 11.

In China, Sallie taught school and did evangelistic work with the help of a Chinese woman translator, referred to as a "Bible woman." She wrote about her experiences in letters to Dr. Henry Tupper of the Foreign Mission Board. After eight years, failing health forced her to return to the United States. She then began her work with the Chinese community of California at the Chinese Mission in Fresno. In 1912 she returned to China for two years, accompanied by her adopted Chinese daughter, Grace Joy Lewis. They returned to the United States in 1914 so that Grace Joy could attend college at the University of California, from which she graduated in 1918 and received her master's degree in 1919.

In 1933, Sallie Stein, then living in Oakland, CA visited the World's Fair in Chicago and then traveled on to Bedford County, VA by bus to visit the scenes of her childhood. This photograph was taken when she visited Suck Spring Baptist Church. She died in 1939.

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