 Her father, Thomas Farrell, who hailed from Troy, New York, was of Irish ancestry.Between the world wars he was the chief engineer for the New York State Department of Public Works, and during World War II rejoined the United States Army to become Deputy Commanding General of the Manhattan Project.Vucanovich's mother, Maria Ynez White, was of English and Hispanic ancestry from southern California, with her maternal grandmother having been a Mexican who became a U.S. citizen upon the transfer of California to the United States in 1848.