She attended and graduated from Alameda High School (Oakland, CA), and graduated from UC California at Berkeley, class of 1951. Her first job out of college was as a flight attendant with United Airlines, flying cross-country on the DC3, living with 8 other flight attendants in a hotel across the street from Central Park in NYC.
She married William R. Prassas in August of 1953. The had three boys: James, Phillip, and John.