Maria Cândida Machado Paes was born in Pedregulho, São Paulo, Brazil, on 25 October 1908 (claimed 20 May). She had eight siblings; four sisters and four brothers. The family lived in the neighborhoods of Brás and Pirituba.

Machado Paes married twice – one of her husbands was João Arruda Paes. She had three children with her first husband, and two children with her second husband. In the late 1990s, she moved to Analândia.

As of December 2015, one of her daughters, Luzia Passe, was 85 years old. One of her daughters died that year, aged 83.

Machado Paes passed away in Analândia, São Paulo, Brazil, on 18 December 2018, at the age of 110.