When Florence Minna Hess was born on March 5, 1876, in San Francisco, California, her father, Joseph Levi Hess, was 35, and her mother, Minna, was 22. She had one brother and three sisters. She was a secretary for the Helbing Hat company. She voted Republican. She never married and lived with her mother and siblings at 2914 Clay Street in San Francisco. She died on October 20, 1922, in London, England, at the age of 46, while traveling, after a brief illness and was buried in Colma, California.