May has three brothers and two sisters, all sadly now deceased save her youngest sister Mildred. They grew up in Upholland Lancashire in Nixons Lane. Later on her father Richard secured work at Bold Colliery in St Helens and the family relocated in a house nearby to his job. After finishing school she started work in a local shirt factory. She began to socialise in St Helens town and met a young man Johnny from Sutton, St Helens