Bernadette Boyle was born on July 21, 1915 in Wilkinsburg, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Her parents were Edward J. Boyle and Elmira Curts.

Elmira Curts Boyle died of ovarian cancer in 1915. At the time of the 1920 Federal Census, Edward J. Boyle lived in Richland, Allegheny County with his children, Mary, Edward, Francis, John, Leo and Bernadette. Also in the home was his mother, Philomina Boyle, and his sister, Ella. In 1930, another sister of Edward Boyle lived with the family and she, Anna C. Boyle, was a nurse.

Newspaper articles indicate that Bernadette was a nurse anesthetist at the hospital in Monongahela, Pennsylvania.

She married Gerard T. Thompson and they apparently lived in Donora, Washington County, Ohio, before moving to Lake County, Ohio. A daughter, Kathleen, was born in Donora in 1947, and her obituary, 2014, states that her siblings were Gerard, Dennis, Kevin, Bernadette and Colleen.

Bernadette Boyle Thomson died on December 15, 1999. She was a long-time resident of Willoughby, Lake County, Ohio, and died at Painsville, Lake County.