Sheila Kuehl
Kuehl was born Sheila Ann Kuehl in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her father, Arthur, was an airplane construction worker at Douglas Aircraft. He was Catholic and her mother, Lillian, was Jewish. As a child actress she performed under the stage name Sheila James.
Sheila Finch
Finch was born in Fulham, London, England where she attended local elementary schools. "Because most of the schools were closed for the duration of World War II, she didn’t get a lot of normal education before her tenth birthday – which was probably a blessing in disguise as she got to spend a lot of time reading books beyond her grade level." She started her undergraduate career at Bishop Otter College in Chichester, West Sussex, England. While on holiday in Switzerland in 1955 she met her future husband, Clare Rayner, whom she married in June 1957 and emigrated with him to the United States. In the U.S., she first lived in Bloomington, Indiana where she obtained her M.A. from Indiana University in medieval literature and linguistics.