Elinor lived in New Jersey for the first 21 years of her life, one of six children, then married and moved to upstate New York where her three children were born. The family spent a year in Adelaide, South Africa, on a teaching exchange, then moved to the Kamloops, British Columbia, area onto a 500-acre hay ranch. Elinor initially taught at a one room school and later taught kindergarten and special ed.

Another move took Elinor to Savary Island near Powell River where her husband operated a flying school and a one-plane charter business. They flew back and forth using a sand strip on the island. Elinor has grandchildren and great grandchildren in Spokane, Denver, Calgary, Alberta, and Sooke, British Columbia on Vancouver Island.