Her father, an immigrant from Scotland, was the city's mayor (1895–97)[4] and her mother was the daughter of prominent physician Dr. William W. Watkins, the first president of the state's medical association and a member of the board of regents of the new University of Idaho.

[4][5][6] After Alex Ryrie died in 1900, Henrietta remarried, but after her father was murdered in 1901,[7][8] her second marriage (to Elisha Nathaniel Brown) failed and she committed suicide in 1904 at age twenty-nine.

Brink started writing for her school newspapers and continued that in college; she graduated from the Portland Academy[1] in Oregon and attended the University of Idaho in Moscow for three years (1914–17).

Across town in east Moscow is "Carol Ryrie Brink Nature Park," a stream restoration area alongside Paradise Creek on land owned by the school district.

At the city's north end, the children's section at the refurbished Carnegie building of the Moscow Public Library contains the "Carol Ryrie Brink Reading Room.