Dorothy Susan Steiwer was born in Seattle, Washington on February 5, 1948 to Mary B. and Robert Leland Steiwer. On July 16, 1969 she married Robert Ritenour and the couple made their home in Las Vegas, Nevada. Dorothy attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and earned her bachelor's and master's degrees. She divorced Robert Ritenour on July 17, 1978. She then married Richard Franklin Wright on February 4, 1984. After Frank Wright's death in 2003, she married Richard Avila.

Stella Parson was born November 18, 1929 in Mississippi. She moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1942 when she was in the fifth grade and was always involved in the Church of God in Christ. After graduating from Las Vegas High School, she went to college at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). Parson became the first African-American to graduate from UNR.