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Donna Rydberg was born in Seattle in 1933, the only child of German immigrants Leo and Freida Bartl. Her father worked as a pastry chef and they lived in the Queen Anne neighborhood. She attended Coe School and Queen Anne High. She received training in dance and classical ballet and was an avid equestrian. She married Clifford Rydberg on July 12, 1955, and the couple lived in the Queen Anne house where Donna grew up. They had no children. She died in Seattle on October 8, 2008 from complications of diabetes.

During the 1960s, Donna Rydberg had a successful modeling career and her work appeared in magazines, newspapers and fashion catalogs. She was also featured at various charity events and fashion show benefits at venues such as the Edgewater Inn, Frederick & Nelson, Seattle Center and Longacres Race Track. In 1961, she appeared at the outdoor groundbreaking ceremony for Gracie Hansen’s Night in Paradise Show at the Seattle World’s Fair. On a cold December day, she wore a show costume and elaborate headdress and entered the stage through a paper apple while Gracie Hansen threw apples to the audience and local press. During the Seattle World’s Fair, she danced in Gracie Hansen’s nightclub show and worked with John Eaton, a successful Seattle milliner who created and sold hats to the city's social set from the 1940s to the 1960s. Later in her career, Donna Rydberg taught modeling at the Anita Charles Beauty School located at 7th and Pine Street in downtown Seattle.