Pearl Collis Kochan was born in Harbour Grace, Newfoundland in 1922, the youngest of three children born to Athelstan and Mary Collis. In 1942 during the Second World War, she moved to Argentia and began working in office administration alongside U.S. military personnel who were stationed there. She met and married John Kochan, a U.S. soldier stationed at the same base. Together they travelled across the United States, finally settling with their daughter in Malibu, California, fulfilling Pearl’s lifelong dream to live on the sunny Pacific coast.