Ruby Duncan was born in Tallulah, Louisiana on June 7, 1932. Her parents passed away when Duncan was three years old and she spent the remainder of her youth living with various relatives in and around Tallulah. Duncan started work at the Ivory Plantation at an early age, only going to school part-time. She quit school to work full-time as a waitress and later a barmaid. Duncan left Tallulah for Las Vegas, Nevada in 1952 to live with her aunt near Henderson, Nevada.
Flora (Turchinsky) Dungan (1917-1973) was a Nevada Assemblywoman and University Regent who successfully sued the state of Nevada twice in order to gain additional representation for Clark County in the legislature and the Board of Regents (the governing board of the state's university system). As a result of Dungan v. Sawyer in 1964, seats were reapportioned in the Nevada legislature and Clark County gained four seats in the Assembly and seven in the Senate. After Dungan sued Nevada again in 1967, Clark County gained the majority of seats on the Board of Regents.