John Jay was born on November 11, 1918 to Oscar and Rose Jay in Elkhart, Indiana. Hilda Lease Jay was born on December 29, 1921 to Frank and Hilda Lease of Westfield, Indiana. John Jay and Hilda Lease met as students at Indiana University. John graduated in 1941 with a B.S. in Business, after which time the two became pen pals as they temporarily went separate ways (John moved to Connecticut to begin his career). They were not apart for long, however, as they married in 1942. John joined the Navy during WWII in 1944, while Hilda went on to graduate from IU in 1945 with a B.S. in Education. They had two children, Sarah (1944) and Ellen (1946), who both also attended and graduated from IU Bloomington. Sarah had two children, Heather Farina and David Wurdlow, who are both represented in this collection.

After his retirement from the Navy, John went on to be a lifelong employee of Remington Arms Company, Inc. in Newtown, Connecticut. Hilda received her Master's of Science from Danbury State College in 1960, a Professional Diploma for Advanced Study from the University of Bridgeport in 1965, and her Doctorate of Education from New York University in 1970. They both moved to Connecticut following marriage, although Hilda returned to school seasonally. John died on August 4, 2008 and Hilda died on September 18, 2019. They were buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Daughter Sarah attended IU from 1960-1964, after which she became a public school librarian in Columbus, Ohio. Ellen, or Margaret Ellen, attended IU from 1964-1968 and became a teacher, professor, and librarian, primarily in Maryland. She also wrote a dozen books about practices in the classroom.