The Benson family came from Sweden in the late nineteenth century, settling in San Francisco, where Martin Benson worked as a chef at the Palace Hotel. Martin had four daughters, the eldest of which was Anna Josephine Benson, born in 1901. Anna lived through the San Francisco earthquake of 1907 and the flu epidemic of 1917. She married Phil Rouse in 1922 and moved to San Jose, California, where Anna and Phil had their only daughter, Marjorie Rouse.