Stuart was born Gloria Stewart at 11:00 p.m. on the Fourth of July, 1910 on the family's kitchen table in Santa Monica, California, the first child of Alice (née Deidrick) and Frank Stewart.
Through her mother, Stuart was a third-generation Californian; Stuart's maternal grandmother, Alice Vaughan, was born in 1854 in Angels Camp, gold country, two years after her own mother, Berilla (Stuart's great-grandmother), relocated to California from Missouri in a covered wagon.
Stuart's father, a native of The Dalles, Oregon, was of Scottish descent, and studied law in San Francisco.
At the time of her birth, he was an attorney representing The Six Companies.
Stuart had one younger brother, Frank Jr., born eleven months later, and another younger brother Thomas (born two years after Frank Jr.), however he died due to spinal meningitis at age three.

As a child, Stuart attended a Church of Christ with her mother, and subsequently attended a Catholic school.
Her father, originally a Presbyterian, converted to Christian Science during her childhood.
When Stuart was nine years old, her father died as the result of an infection from an injury sustained when an automobile grazed his leg.
She was also expelled from grade school after kicking her teacher ("to be honest, she deserved it" she recalled).
Hard-pressed to support two small children, her mother soon accepted the proposal of local businessman Fred J. Finch.
Stuart attended her schooling using the name Gloria Fae Finch.
She had not been given a middle name by her parents and so adopted one, Frances, the feminine of Frank, her father's name.

Stuart attended Santa Monica High School where she was active in theater, and performed the lead role in her senior class play, The Swan.
She loved writing as much as acting, and spent her last two summers in high school taking short story and poetry writing classes and working as a cub reporter for the Santa Monica Outlook.

While a teenager, she had a tumultuous relationship with her stepfather, and sought to attend college in order to leave home.
After high school, Stuart enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley, majoring in philosophy and drama.
In college, she appeared in plays, worked on the Daily Californian, contributed to the campus literary journal, Occident, and posed as an artist's model.
It was at Berkeley that she began signing her name Gloria Stuart.

While a student at UC Berkeley, Stuart wanted to join the Young Communist League.
She wrote, "I was told it was for the poor and the oppressed.
That appealed to me.
But membership wasn't open to anyone under eighteen, so I couldn't join."
In Carmel, she notes that her friendship with muckraker Lincoln Steffens gave her "... much deeper insight into the abuses of laborers and blue-collar workers and made me ready to work for liberal causes when I got to Hollywood a few years later."

At the end of her junior year, in June 1930, Stuart married Blair Gordon Newell, a young sculptor who apprenticed with Ralph Stackpole on the facade of the San Francisco Stock Exchange building.
The Newells moved to Carmel-by-the-Sea where there was a stimulating community of artists such as Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Robinson Jeffers and Lincoln Steffens and his wife Ella Winter.
In Carmel-by-the-Sea, Stuart performed in productions at the Theatre of the Golden Bough and worked as a staff member on The Carmelite newspaper.
She meanwhile made hand-sewn aprons, patchwork pillows and tea linens, and created bouquets of dried flowers for a tea shop, in which she also worked as a waitress.
Newell laid brick, chopped and stacked wood, taught sculpture and woodworking, and managed a miniature golf course.
They lived in a shack in the middle of a wood yard as night watchmen.
Stuart would later reflect on this period of her life as "wonderfully bohemian."
Stuart was born Gloria Stewart at 11:00 p.m. on the Fourth of July, 1910 on the family's kitchen table in Santa Monica, California, the first child of Alice (née Deidrick) and Frank Stewart. Through her mother, Stuart was a third-generation Californian; Stuart's maternal grandmother, Alice Vaughan, was born in 1854 in Angels Camp, gold country, two years after her own mother, Berilla (Stuart's great-grandmother), relocated to California from Missouri in a covered wagon. Stuart's father, a native of The Dalles, Oregon, was of Scottish descent, and studied law in San Francisco. At the time of her birth, he was an attorney representing The Six Companies. Stuart had one younger brother, Frank Jr., born eleven months later, and another younger brother Thomas (born two years after Frank Jr.), however he died due to spinal meningitis at age three.
As a child, Stuart attended a Church of Christ with her mother, and subsequently attended a Catholic school. Her father, originally a Presbyterian, converted to Christian Science during her childhood. When Stuart was nine years old, her father died as the result of an infection from an injury sustained when an automobile grazed his leg. She was also expelled from grade school after kicking her teacher ("to be honest, she deserved it" she recalled). Hard-pressed to support two small children, her mother soon accepted the proposal of local businessman Fred J. Finch. Stuart attended her schooling using the name Gloria Fae Finch. She had not been given a middle name by her parents and so adopted one, Frances, the feminine of Frank, her father's name.
Stuart attended Santa Monica High School where she was active in theater, and performed the lead role in her senior class play, The Swan. She loved writing as much as acting, and spent her last two summers in high school taking short story and poetry writing classes and working as a cub reporter for the Santa Monica Outlook. 
While a teenager, she had a tumultuous relationship with her stepfather, and sought to attend college in order to leave home. After high school, Stuart enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley, majoring in philosophy and drama. In college, she appeared in plays, worked on the Daily Californian, contributed to the campus literary journal, Occident, and posed as an artist's model. It was at Berkeley that she began signing her name Gloria Stuart.
While a student at UC Berkeley, Stuart wanted to join the Young Communist League. She wrote, "I was told it was for the poor and the oppressed. That appealed to me. But membership wasn't open to anyone under eighteen, so I couldn't join." In Carmel, she notes that her friendship with muckraker Lincoln Steffens gave her "... much deeper insight into the abuses of laborers and blue-collar workers and made me ready to work for liberal causes when I got to Hollywood a few years later."
At the end of her junior year, in June 1930, Stuart married Blair Gordon Newell, a young sculptor who apprenticed with Ralph Stackpole on the facade of the San Francisco Stock Exchange building. The Newells moved to Carmel-by-the-Sea where there was a stimulating community of artists such as Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Robinson Jeffers and Lincoln Steffens and his wife Ella Winter. In Carmel-by-the-Sea, Stuart performed in productions at the Theatre of the Golden Bough and worked as a staff member on The Carmelite newspaper. She meanwhile made hand-sewn aprons, patchwork pillows and tea linens, and created bouquets of dried flowers for a tea shop, in which she also worked as a waitress. Newell laid brick, chopped and stacked wood, taught sculpture and woodworking, and managed a miniature golf course. They lived in a shack in the middle of a wood yard as night watchmen. Stuart would later reflect on this period of her life as "wonderfully bohemian."
Gloria Stuart