 Ríos was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Rafael Rios, a native of Puerto Rico who moved and settled in the New York City borough of Brooklyn in the early part of the 20th century and to Marie Teresa Dowd, an American of Irish heritage.Ríos was proud of her Puerto Rican heritage and a devout Catholic who became interested in writing at a young age.In the 1930s, she met and married Humbert Joseph Versace, a 1933 graduate of the United States Military Academy (West Point).