When Bertelle Elizabeth Thorp was born on 10 September 1911, in Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, her father, Frank Thomas Thorp, was 24 and her mother, Bertell Emma Perkins, was 22. She married Cecil Franklin Cavanah in 1929. They were the parents of at least 2 sons. She died on 20 February 1998, in Carson-Tahoe Hospital, Carson City, Nevada, United States, at the age of 86.