Kiniski's family emigrated to Chipman, Alberta in 1912.Merrily K. Aubrey, "Kiniski Gardens", Naming Edmonton: From Ada to Zoie (2004), p. 182. At the age of sixteen she married her husband, Nicholas, with whom she raised six children, including wrestler Gene Kiniski. In 1936, Kiniski and her husband moved to Edmonton.Edmonton Public Library, Election biographies . He worked as a barber, making $5 ($ today) a week, while she sold cosmetics and managed a café. Having dropped out of school after Grade 7, in later life Kiniski "[e]nrolled in University of Alberta Extension courses, studying psychology, philosophy and world affairs".
