Sandra Reuben was born in 1941 in Forest City, Iowa, to Lillian Katz Reuben and Sidney Reuben. The oldest of three siblings, she graduated from Forest City Leland Community High School in 1959. She reflected on her childhood in Forest City, “We knew we were Jewish. Dad drove us the 30 miles to nearby Mason City where there was a small synagogue with about 60 families. We had circuit rabbis much of the time.” (Sandra Reuben, “Recollections of Growing up Jewish in Forest City, Iowa.”)

Reuben’s mother Lillian Katz was born in 1915 in St. Paul, Minnesota. She grew up in Mason City, the daughter of Ethel and Nathan Katz, a skilled tailor and owner of Katz Tailors and Clothiers. In 1938, Lillian Katz married Sidney Reuben, a Lithuanian who had emigrated to the U.S. with his mother and sister in 1920. Sidney Reuben began his career as an independent businessman during the Depression when he purchased an empty storefront in Forest City. Reuben’s Department Store celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 1987 and through the years provided employment opportunities to many Forest City residents, including Rita Branstad, the mother of Iowa Governor Terry Branstad.

Between 1959 and 1962, Sandra Reuben attended the State University of Iowa (now the University of Iowa), where she was a member of Sigma Delta Tau, a sorority for Jewish women. She completed a master’s in Library Science at Denver University and began her career as a librarian at the Los Angeles Public Library in 1965. In 1989, she was appointed as a director of the County of Los Angeles Public Library, a position she held until her retirement in 2001. In 1996, Reuben married Ken Marks. Throughout her career, she was active in the California Library Association and the American Library Association.