Carol Cope (born Ida Ernestine Schrepel) was born September 13, 1909, in Tate, Nebraska, to Frank Joseph and Marilena (Pettinger) Schrepel. She attended the Pawnee County District 43 rural school near Tate and St. Anthony High School in Steinauer, Nebraska, before graduating from Burchard High School in Burchard, Nebraska, in 1926.
