Frey was born in St. Louis and grew up in Allegany, New York,[2] the child of a professor and a schoolteacher.
She attended Allegany Central School and as a sophomore began interning for the Olean Times Herald.
[3] After college, Frey interned at the Detroit Free Press, then the Miami Herald.
[4] Writing of Frey in 1997, David Carr called her "a certified prodigy who can do it all: X's and O's, empathetic profiles, and hard takedowns when the situation requires it.
[1] Frey died of organ failure due to alcoholism on March 26, 2016, at the age of 47.