Jerome Countess was born on December 22, 1920 in Brooklyn, New York. His mother raised him as a single mother, making ends meet with her job in a clothing factory. Countess's father rarely held a job, and his mother divorced him when Countess was three-years-old. Countess grew up in the borough's Jewish neighborhood, and he developed a reputation for being a skillful handball player and a great dancer.

Cora Semmes Ives (1834-1916) was an American writer during the mid-1800s. She was well-known for writing the pro-Confederate utopian novel, The Princess of the Moon: A Confederate Fairy Story.