Ellen M. Carroll, the daughter of Dr. Joseph H. Carroll and Grace Miller, was born in Pittsburgh, graduated from the Ethel Walker School in Simsbury, Connecticut, and attended Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. In 1953 she married James M. Walton who has served as president of the Carnegie Institute and Library and as a director of Gulf Oil. Currently, he is vice chair of the Heinz Endowments. She was the seventeenth Regent (1999-2004) of the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union.