Cornelia Prentiss Shrauger was born on January 24, 1896, in Dobbs Ferry, New York. Daughter of Dr. Henry J. Prentiss (1867-1931), head of the anatomy department at the University of Iowa, and Lue Bradley Prentiss (1868-1922), Cornelia Shrauger was an active member of her community and participated in the Daughters of the American Revolution.

She married Harold Francis Shrauger of Atlantic, Iowa, in 1915. Their wedding was a secret elopement that surprised and amused their friends and families. Cornelia Prentiss Shrauger graduated from the State University of Iowa (now the University of Iowa) with the first graduating class of the Department of Home Economics in 1916. She was vice president of the Senior Council in the College of Liberal Arts and a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority.

Cornelia and Harold Shrauger settled in Atlantic, Iowa, where Harold Shrauger operated a home and office appliance store. In addition to raising their three children Harold Shrauger Jr. (1916-2004), Cornelia Shrauger Day (1919-2004), and Virginia Shrauger Jones (b. 1921), Cornelia Shrauger was active in the Browning Literary Society, the Atlantic Carnegie Library, and the United Presbyterian Church, where she served as organist for twenty-one years.

Cornelia and Harold Shrauger's son Harold Shrauger, Jr. married Frances Kephart in 1943. They lived in Le Mars, Iowa, where Harold Shrauger, Jr., worked as a sales representative for Allied Mills, manufacturers of poultry and livestock feed. Fran graduated from the State University of Iowa in 1936, where she was a member of the Phi Gamma Nu fraternity. She became a notary public in 1981. Fran and Harold loved to travel in their later lives; they toured Europe in 1984 and went to New Orleans in 1994. Fran kept detailed journals of their travels.

Cornelia Shrauger loved to travel and to do crossword puzzles. She spent the last twelve years of her life at Halcyon House, a retirement community in Washington, Iowa. She died on February 9, 1985.