Born in Toronto, Ontario in 1894, Speirs was the daughter of Archibald Morrison and Florence Gooderham (Hamilton) Huestis.
[2] At the age of 17, she traveled through Europe with her music teacher, visiting art galleries and collecting sepia prints.
She influenced two of her friends, Bess Larkin Housser (later Harris' wife) and Marjorie Meredith, and a sister, Marion Miller, to paint as well, each reaching a certain degree of success with their art.
For her work as a prominent contributor to ornithological literature on the evening grosbeak and Lincoln's sparrow, the Society of Canadian Ornithologists bestow the annual "Doris Huestis Speirs Award" in her honor.
[4] She met J. Murray Speirs while he was in graduate school studying ornithology; they married in 1939,[6] and he subsequently became a professor of zoology at the University of Toronto.