Ivy Maria Smith was born on 12 September 1904 in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey. She was the third of six children and they grew up in Church Lane, Walton-on-Thames with their parents, grocer Ernest George Smith and Emily (née Larby-Wilson). Their paternal grandmother Martha Smith (née Hagger) and unmarried aunt Kate Smith lived next-door. Ivy married Laurence John Turner in 1927. They had one daughter who now lives in Somerset. Ivy worked as a newsagent, tobacconist and sweet shop owner.
Laurence died in 1973 aged 77, and following that Ivy retired to Yeovil, Somerset, where she died in August 2000 aged 95.