Several versions of how Nibley met his wife have been offered at various times. A few variations:

His ambitious scholarly work hardly left time for dating..., [so] not wanting to waste his time on girl-watching, he [knelt] down one day in the closed stacks of the old Grant Library and fervently laid out his faith, asking the Lord to please arrange that the next woman who came through the door would bea suitable wife for him.... The next woman who entered was his best student, considerably his junior. And so the courtship began, hardly breaking the stride of his scholarly endeavors.

Nibley went into the mountains of Southern Utah to fast and pray for a wife.

After being told he wouldn't be able to continue at BYU if he didn't marry soon, he went in desperation up Rock Canyon and say on a rock overlooking the canyon, and he had been fasting and he began to pray and asked the Lord to help him find a wife, and then as he was sitting, there his wife walked up the canyon, just taking a walk.He figured that must be the one so he went down and introduced himself.

Other versions have Phyllis, his wife, working in the ticket booth for theatrical events, or as the secretary in the Joseph Smith Building, or as the woman who gave him his key at Heritage Halls.

What does Nibley himself have to say about the matter? He won't say other than to say these stories are not far from the truth. He said, "I was thirty-six years old and told Elder Widstoe, a member of the LDS Council of the Twelve, that I would marry the first girl I met at BYU. Two weeks later, I was engaged to that first girl and in six weeks I was married. That whi it's called the BYWoo, I guess."

There was a portrait display of professor's wives on BYU campus. Each professor put a tribute to his wife below her picture. Nibley's tribute to his wife was, "She knows when to leave me alone." Nibley's greatest challege has been to find all the time he needs to complete his studies. There are so many people hounding him all the time. Though it seems a bit abrasive and unromantic at first, it is actually quite a high compliment coming from Nibley.