Bertha Beatrice McGary was born in Texas in 1913. In 1931 she married and her name became Bertha Beatrice Dyer. She gave birth to five children. In 1942, she divorced and reportedly moved to Arizona. There, she possibly remarried to a man with the last name Smith. In 1944, she wrote a letter to family saying she was returning to Texas and was never seen or heard from again.