Kay Dwyer was born August 30, 1934 to James and Eileen Crawford. Her father attained a job as an accountant with Basic Magnesium Incorporated in 1942. This moved the family to Henderson, Nevada, which was a brand new community in the early 1940s. In 1952, Dwyer graduated from Basic High School and then moved to Los Angeles, California to attend Pepperdine University for two years. She moved back to the Las Vegas, Nevada area and started a family with Stanly Hardy with whom she had three children.