Judith Anne Ford moved to Belvidere, Illinois at age three with her parents and brother.

After graduating from high school, she spent her freshman year of college at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, (then called the University of Southwestern Louisiana), to train under the expertise of trampoline coach Jeff Hennessy.

After her freshman year as a gymnast on the trampoline team at the University of Louisiana, Ford took time off from her studies to compete in the Miss America pageant and its preliminaries.

Following her year off, she transferred to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she received her bachelor's degree in physical education and was a member of Delta Gamma sorority.

Later in life she earned a master's degree in physical education from Western Illinois University.