Harriet Thornton Hicks was born June 8, 1913 in Parowan, Utah; the thirteenth child of 14. In 1931, she moved to Las Vegas, Nevada to join two older sisters who had relocated there. She was picked up at the train by young Charles Hicks, who was a friend of her sisters. Charles had a car and offered to provide transportation. Within three years, the two were married. Hicks quit her drug store job to raise a family and he worked for the railroad, the only business at the time in Las Vegas.