 Virginia Leland Evarts was born in San Diego to Dorothea Abbott Evarts, an artist and teacher, and Hal G. Evarts, Jr., an author of many western books, stories for the "Saturday Evening Post", biographies, and adventure titles for young readers.Her maternal grandfather, Clinton Gilbert Abbott, was the director of the San Diego Natural History Museum and her paternal grandfather, Hal G. Evarts, was an author of western novels in the 1920s and 1930s.She and her two younger brothers camped with their family in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, explored Baja California, and traveled throughout the Western United States while their father conducted research for his writing.