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The Skinner family lived in Yakima, Washington where Henry Harlow Skinner (1878-1953) had an obstetrics/pediatrics practice. A native of Princeton, Massachusetts, Henry Skinner graduated with an M.D. from Western Reserve University School of Medicine in 1908. He moved to Yakima in 1910 because he viewed it as, "the best example of a small town in the west." Over the course of his career, Henry Skinner authored some three dozen articles for medical journals and delivered an estimated 6,000 babies. In 1913 he married Dora Davis.

Dora Davis (1884-1982) was born in Niigata, Japan, the daughter of American missionaries of the Congregational Church. Her family returned to the United States when she was two years old, ultimately settling in Olivet, Michigan. She attended Oberlin College, where she met her future husband. After graduating from Oberlin in 1906, she enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. She graduated as a Registered Nurse in 1909, and served as a Red Cross nurse in World War I.

Henry and Dora were both part of a local airline company for a time. Henry and other local businessmen incorporated Triangle Airways Inc. in May 1930. Dora was one of the trustees and was named president. This venture was apparently short-lived, but a pilot named J. L. (John) Seawell was hired and he taught both of them how to fly. Henry completed his first solo flight on July 22, 1930, and received his private pilot's license on September 18, 1930. Dora had her first solo flight on November 5, 1930, and earned her private pilot's license less than a month later on December 3, 1930. She said she was only the 385th woman to be a licensed pilot in the United States.

In 1931 Dora became owner of a C2 Cardinal built by the St. Louis Aircraft Corporation. She named this plane Dawn , and at that time it was said that she was the only woman in the state of Washington to own an airplane. Dora became well-known locally for her flying exploits and for hosting visiting pilots, activities documented in the "society" pages of the Yakima and Seattle newspapers. She flew in the Northwest Air Tour of 1931 with some two-dozen other pilots, some of whom were famous stunt pilots of the day, the most famous being Tex Rankin.

Henry and Dora had two children: Henry Harlow Skinner Junior (1920-2009) and Ellouise Wadsworth Skinner (1928-2014). Henry Jr. enlisted in the U.S. Army and attended Western Reserve University School of Medicine in an accelerated wartime program, completing his M.D. in 1945. He went on to have a private practice in Yakima for twenty-three years. In 1944 at the urging of her mother, Ellouise learned to fly in a Taylorcraft airplane. She flew solo at age 16, but at that time, one had to be 17 to become licensed. When the minimum age was lowered, Ellouise passed the test and became licensed as a private pilot. She also learned aerobatic flying.

After allowing her pilot's license to lapse for many years, Ellouise began the process of renewing it in the 1970s. Once licensed, she took many friends and family members for flights, inspiring several individuals to become pilots themselves, including her third daughter, Jenny, who is now an airline pilot.