She was the first president of the Romance Writers of America, and founding member with her mother Rita Gallagher.
Her mother, Rita Gallagher, was a former Miss Michigan, a romance novelist and a noted writing instructor, while her father was a pilot with the U.S. Air Force.
She married her high school sweetheart when she was very young and stayed at home to raise their four children.
Harlequin owned her pen name, so she wrote as Tira Lacy, an anagram of Rita Clay.
In 1985 she re-signed with Harlequin and asked to use her full name, Rita Clay Estrada, on all future books.