McDougal was born as Julia Hawthorne Hall in Grayling, Michigan on 8 February 1912 as the eldest of three daughters born to Will Andrew Dibble Hall and his wife, Helen Adelia Lewis. Her sisters, Sarah and Jane, lived to be 92 and 80 years old respectively. Her paternal great-great-grandfather, Andrew Patterson Dibble, died in 1875 aged 97.

At the age of 10, McDougal survived both measles and scarlet fever, and also survived cancer later in her life. As a teenager, her father took her to Niagara Falls, which she would later state was one of her favourite memories, as was her first plane trip in 1930. During the 1930s, as a young adult, she worked as a secretary at Ayers & Son Advertising for 80 cents per hour.

McDougal was married thrice. She married her high school sweetheart Spencer Wallace Jones in 1938, and the couple had three children: Spencer Jr., Susan, and Laminda. Her husband was in the military, and after World War II’s end, the family lived in Germany and France. McDougal worked as a civilian secretary in various military offices. She was granted top-secret security clearance.

McDougal and her family eventually returned to the United States, settling in Browns Valley, California in 1954. She was employed as an executive assistant and personal secretary to Woodrow Jang, the owner of Jay’s department store while living in Marysville, California.

McDougal was widowed in 1965. After her husband’s death, she moved to Napa, California, and ended up reuniting with an old acquaintance, George Waldemar Erickson. The two were married on 16 February 1969. Erickson died two years later, and McDougal moved back to Marysville.

On 31 October 1982, aged 70, McDougal married her third and final husband, Glen Gillard McDougal. They were married for three years and nine months before Glen’s death aged 78. She was beloved by the families of her latter two husbands. Her son, Spencer Jones Jr., died in 2016 aged 74.

As a centenarian, McDougal lived with her daughter Susan. Aged 109, she listened to audiobooks daily, and completed crosswords with her daughter. She died on 19 December 2022 at the age of 110 years, 314 days, and was survived by her two daughters, and numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren.