When Dora Ethel Foster was born on 2 February 1893, in Cushing, Payne, Oklahoma Territory, United States, her father, John Thomas Foster, was 21 and her mother, Ida Bell Fillmore, was 17. She married Walter Clyde Phillips on 14 June 1910. They were the parents of at least 2 sons and 2 daughters. She lived in Sweet, Gem, Idaho, United States in 1920 and North Emmett Election Precinct, Gem, Idaho, United States in 1940. She died on 12 April 1969, in Emmett, Gem, Idaho, United States, at the age of 76, and was buried in Emmett, Gem, Idaho, United States.