[1] Curtin was born in Ballarat, Victoria, to parents Annie and Abraham Needham.

During the 1910s, she moved to Hobart, Tasmania, where she met John Curtin.

They married in Perth, Western Australia, on 21 April 1917, and had two children.

Her husband died in office on 5 July 1945, and she attended the public funeral.

In 1944, she became the Labour Women's Union's Western Australian President, a role she kept until September 1946.