She grew up in East Aurora, New York and attended college at SUNY Plattsburgh. In 1973, she moved to Rochester to marry Michael Joseph Kress. They had two sons, and divorced in 1984. At that time, she went to work at Stanton and Hucko, an advertising agency. In 1998, she married Charles Sheffield, who died in 2002 of a brain tumor. Kress moved back to Rochester, New York, to be near her grown children. She loves ballet, and has written stories around it.