Major score tonight - I found the ship's manifest for my grandmother!  The trick was using her middle name as given (Grazia) and realizing she came over while still under her maiden name.  So there are two further interesting twists here.

She arrived February 13, 1917...
First:  The Immigration Act of 1917 passed on February 5, and some of the extra questions they then were to ask are on the paperwork for my grandmother.  This tells me at least that she could read and write her own name, or they'd likely have sent her back.
Second:  She also arrived unmarried and she had my dad December 18, 1917.  I'm guessing I'll eventually find information that shows she was coming here to get hitched (she did state she was heading straight to Altoona).

Reading what I am right now, a book about the cruise ship industry (which of course launches into the history of immigration ships), it has really driven home what they went through.  Sure, everyone recognizes that third class passengers didn't have it that great, but 5-7 days by yourself with limited English, arriving to the confusion of Ellis Island with their tests and questions?