When Dorothy Ruth Tevis was born on 13 December 1902, in Windsor, Henry, Missouri, United States, her father, Thomas Henderson Tevis, was 34 and her mother, Dora Elizabeth Vanwinkle, was 29. She married John Sears on 27 December 1918. They were the parents of at least 2 daughters. She lived in Washington Township, Johnson, Missouri, United States in 1910. She died on 18 April 1982, in Kansas City, Wyandotte, Kansas, United States, at the age of 79.