Stephanie Rogers was born July 4, 1918, to poor Irish immigrant parents, Sarah and Joseph Rogers. Rogers grew up a frail youth during the Great Depression in America. Little else is known about Rogers' early life other than the fact that a strong sense of duty, honor, and humility was instilled in her; perhaps due to her Irish Catholic upbringing. Rogers' father died when she was a child and her mother died from pneumonia later, when she was in her late teens.
Later in life, after successfully becoming Captain America, Rogers was later submitted to an experimental mind-conditioning program that conditioned her mind to accept false information in the chance she was captured by the enemy and forced to reveal classified information. As part of the conditioning, Rogers believed her real name to be Gracie Rogers, that she had a brother, and that due to her parents being diplomats, she had a casual upper class appointment to the Army and Captain America position. It would not be until far later in life that Rogers would recall the conditioning and her true history.
Decades later, Rogers' wartime comrade, the Sub-Mariner, stumbled across his still-frozen form, which was being worshiped by a far-flung Inuit tribe. Enraged, the Sub-Mariner threw the ice block into the ocean. While opposing Namor, the newly formed Avengers happened upon Rogers' thawing body and soon revived the legendary hero.
Rogers was originally issued a traditionally "kite" shaped shield made of mundane steel, as well as a sidearm. Cap's original helmet served as a mask and was separate from the rest of her costume. This proved a problem as in one early outing it was nearly knocked from her face via the hard wing emblems, almost revealing his identity to an attending newspaper reporter with a camera. Adding a protective neck-plating hood to her costume, rather than her separate mask, solved this problem and afforded Rogers more protection. President F.D. Roosevelt later presented Rogers with her now-legendary disc-shaped shield. Discovering that its excellent aerodynamic properties made it an effective offensive weapon, Rogers abandoned her sidearm.