[2][3] Born in Willits, California, on February 5, 1908, Ceccarelli was the eldest of the seven children of Italian immigrants Agostino (1874–1965) and Maria Recagno (1881–1973), who both lived into their 90s.

[2] Her father was a lumber worker who also sold groceries by horse and buggy before opening a store in Willits in 1916.

[3] Ceccarelli danced regularly well into old age, and lived independently until she turned 107 and moved into a retirement home.

[2][7] In 1933, she married Elmer Keenan, whom she had met in high school, and moved with him to Santa Rosa, California, where he worked as a typesetter for The Press Democrat.

[8] She became the oldest living person in the United States when Iowan Bessie Hendricks died in January 2023.