Named for her maternal grandmother, Richea Myers-Cohen, Richea Gratz Etting was the first born of eight children of Solomon Etting and his second wife, Rachel, the only Daughter of Barnard Gratz. She also had three older siblings (a sister and two brothers) from her father’s earlier marriage to Reyna Simon. Richea grew up in one of Baltimore’s largest and most prominent Jewish families. Her father played a significant role in civic and business life in Baltimore and was involved in the struggle for Jewish equality in the state of Maryland.

Richea and her siblings seem to have found much fulfillment in their original family surroundings. Of the ten siblings to survive to adulthood, only three (sisters Miriam and Kitty and brother Samuel) would marry. Richea, like her six remaining siblings, was apparently content with the single life.