Mary McCoy was born March 03, 1948 in Lancaster, New York. Her family moved to Las Vegas, Nevada on December 26, 1959. After graduating from Basic High School, McCoy immediately enrolled at Nevada Southern University, which was in the midst of growing into the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). During the summer of 1967, she worked at the university's library moving books into the expanded facility. Though she altered her studies program from education to English, she continued to work at the library and continued the job after graduation.

Stella Butterfield's family, the Goldbergs, was Jewish, and she was born in the Bronx. During World War II she worked for the Coast Guard in the steno pool in Washington, D.C. Stella moved to Santa Monica a few years later while the war was still going on and worked briefly as a riveter for Douglas Aircraft and then as a teletype operator for the Air Force but at Douglas Aircraft. Because she had a hard time getting a job because of antisemitism, she changed her name to Gilbert.

Barbara Drew is the dean of the Academy for Ministers, teaches Bible study, and performs other spiritual work at New Jerusalem Worship Center. Drew migrated to Las Vegas from Fortune Fork, Louisiana, just two miles outside the city limits of Tallulah. She traveled by car where passengers slept, ate, and talked about their new lives-to-be. She lived with an aunt on D and Monroe in a shack with a butane stove and no indoor toilet. Her first job was at American Linen.