When Bertha Mae Thorp was born on 16 February 1932, in Moberly, Randolph, Missouri, United States, her father, John Joshua Thorp, was 28 and her mother, Ella Elizabeth Parrish, was 19. She married Sidney Brengle Heathman on 6 September 1950, in Bentonville, Benton, Arkansas, United States. She lived in Sugar Creek Township, Randolph, Missouri, United States in 1940. She died on 21 January 2015, in Blue Springs, Jackson, Missouri, United States, at the age of 82, and was buried in Blue Springs Cemetery, Sni-A-Bar Township, Jackson, Missouri, United States.