John and D'Ann Naser Andersen photograph collection, 1920-2005

D'Ann Naser Andersen was born to Mae Ogden and Karl Naser . Her father, Karl Naser, served in the United States Navy in World War II. D'Ann's mother, Mae Ogden Naser White (1911-2003), worked at Geneva Steel and at the Atomic City in Oakridge, Tennessee, on the atomic bomb project during World War II. After the war, Mae graduated from Brigham Young University (BYU) on June 1, 1948, and taught typing and shorthand at Weber College in Ogden, Utah. After Karl and Mae divorced, Mae married Lee White in 1953.

After a childhood spent in Richfield, Utah, D'Ann attended BYUfor one year before transferring to the University of Utah, where she trained as a nurse at the Latter Day Saints Hospital and graduated in 1954. While a student, D'Ann cared for polio patients during an epidemic, and in her senior year she participated in field trials for the inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV), or Salk vaccine, at an elementary school in Ogden, Utah. D'Ann worked as a nurse in operating rooms in Utah and in San Francisco, California. She also taught nursing at BYU. In addition to training as a nurse, D'Ann was an artist, studying painting under Harold Petersen.

In October, 1956, she married John Waldo Andersen. Together, the couple had four children: Neil John Andersen (1957-), James Alan Andersen (1959-), Vicki Andersen (1962-), and Brent Steven Andersen (1964-). The family lived in a house in Salt Lake City designed by notable Ralph A. Edwards in 1956. Edwards designed well-known Utah buildings like the Salt Palace Convention Center and Salt Lake Public Library.