Emma Alice McCormick was born on October 7, 1852, in Parkersburg, Virginia (present-day West Virginia), to Andrew W. McCormick and Alice J. Leckliter. Her father was a lawyer and postmaster who owned $500 of personal property by 1860. The family moved to Marietta, Ohio, in the late 1850s, and she grew up and attended school there.
She married Daniel R. Greene on December 25, 1875, and they had four children: Richard, born around 1877; Alice, born around 1879; Grace, born around 1883; and Elbert, born around 1887. They lived in Marietta, and her husband worked as a crockery dealer. They moved to Pueblo, Colorado, in the late 1800s, and she died in Denver, Colorado, on June 23, 1907.