She lived in Waterloo Road, Blackpool and named her house Longhurst after her Coronation Street character.
Come from a long line of actors dating back to Charles I. Her parents
were both stage actors, whose names were Mina McKinnon and Charles
Harber. Her brother James McKinnon was also a stage actor. She had a
son and daughter of her own.
She and her husband, actor Bert Palmer had 3 children, Michael, Robert and Jan, none of whom went into acting. On July 7, 1965, one son was killed in an R.A.F. parachutists' air crash disaster at Abingdon, England.