Mary Christina Flynn was born on Christmas Day, 1950, in Bangor, Maine. She lived in Sanford, Maine, during her childhood and attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Noroton, Connecticut, Bradford College in Bradford, Massachusetts, and Lasalle Junior College in Newton, Massachusetts. She spent her summers in Searsport, Maine, on the shore of Penobscot Bay, on Squirrel  Island in Boothbay Harbor and at Kennebunk Beach.