Brewer and her older brother, Paul, lived in Hawthorne until she was ten years old, when the family moved to California, seeking "dry desert air and clean ocean breezes". Her father died of lung disease when she was eleven years old, having been ravaged by the constant exposure to chemicals while at the depot. She graduated from Verdugo Hills High School in 1962. Brewer attended Glendale Community College in Glendale, Arizona, where she received a radiological technologist certificate.
