 Born in Elk River, Minnesota, she grew up in Portland, Oregon, attending Lincoln High School and later Reed College studying mathematics and physics.She was married to fellow Reed student Robert A. Brady from 1924 to 1936, they had a son in 1933.Brady earned a master’s degree in mathematics from Cornell University in 1926, then worked as an instructor at Vassar College, as a research assistant at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a studied and taught at New York University.