I was born Barbara Jean Ricketts, daughter of Ralph Leroy Ricketts and Virginia Catherine Breniser. In the 1950s, our family, including Mom, Dad, and my younger brother, Bruce, traveled cross-country from Michigan to California. My dad, a machinist, had lined up a job with Max Factor in Los Angeles, but after taking a long look at L.A., decided to head south and we ended up in El Cajon in San Diego County. It was a great place to grow up. After a brief marriage, including the birth of my darling Angela, I renewed a friendship with a high school boyfriend and we married in 1967, adding Danielle and Scott to our family. Moving to L.A. in 1976, our marriage lasted until 1980. I've been on my own since then, finishing a B.S. at Cal State L.A. and a teaching credential at Pacific Oaks College. Teaching was much harder than I realized, and partly because of physical problems, I took an office job at USC. In 1984, I changed my last name to Carrington, my father's mother's maiden name.

In August 2002, I moved to San Diego and lived with Angela, my eldest daughter. In November 2004, I moved to Pacific Beach into a very small studio apartment.