Martha Marion Smith was the third child of George and Gertrude Smith. She was born August 7, 1898.

On March 3, 1926 she married a widower named Gordon Raymond Sewell in Toronto, Ontario. Although Gordon was born and raised in Toronto, at the time he lived in Chicago and worked as a lather. Martha moved to Chicago with him. Gordon had a son Stanley from a previous marriage. Together they had a son named Stuart.

Gordon died in 1962. Martha died 20 years later in May of 1982 in Aurora, Illinois.