Irene Frank was born on a farm in Meridian, Bosque, Texas, USA, on 1 October 1881, to parents M. P. and Josie Mingus Frank. Her parents divorced early, leading to her growing up in the home of her grandparents for a few years before later moving back in with her mother, who had remarried in 1895. At the age of nine, she began attending a one room schoolhouse, and would later receive education in the subjects of elocution, home economics, and stenography.

When she was 21, she became very sick with typhoid fever, which left her ill for nearly a month before recovering. Later recalling this event in an interview, she said “I didn’t know if I was going to live. But I had never been baptized and I said, ‘Lord, if I live through this, I will be baptized.'” Following the illness, she received her baptism and became a member of the First Baptist Church, which she was still attending every Sunday at the time of her 106th birthday. She spent much of her life caring for other relatives, but also spent a few years working as a secretary for a judge and two architects in Abilene.

When she turned 100 in 1981, she received letters of congratulations from both President Ronald Reagan and Texas Governor Bill Clements, which she kept proudly on her wall, despite being a staunch supporter of the Democratic Party. At the time of her 106th birthday in 1987, she still lived completely independently, and did all of her own housework.

Irene Frank died in Decatur, Wise, Texas on 28 February 1996, aged 114 years, 150 days.