 Irene graduated Belington High School in 1956 married her high school boyfriend Joe McKinney at Fort Ashby, West Virginia; they later had 2 children named Julia Vickers nee McKinney and Paul McKinney.Initially a stay-at-home mom, her interest in poetry and literature was piqued when she discovered that the library in Buckhannon (Buckhannon Public Library) where she lived had a lot of books that she was really interested in learning from.Through this activity, she became highly influenced by the likes of Emily Dickinson and Sylvia Plath.