Nellie Ryl was born stateless in 1926 in Tientsin (now known as Tianjin), China. She was one of four children in her family. Her father, Wiktor Ryl, was from Poland and her mother, Lieba Lace Ryl, was from Latvia. Ryl’s parents met in Vladivostok, Russia, but fled to China to escape communism after World War I. They settled in the Fu-Chang-Li compound in the British Concession in Tientsin, China.

Nellie Ryl lived in Tientsin until 1946 when she moved to Peking, China. As the Chinese Civil War escalated in 1948, Ryl decided it was time to get herself, her parents, and her younger sister out of China. Nellie Ryl signed her family up with the International Refugee Organization (IRO) and in February 1949 the Ryl family was evacuated to an IRO displaced persons camp in Tubabao, Samar, the Philippines. They lived there until November 1950, when they made the voyage to San Diego, California, aboard the USNS General M. L. Hershey. The family settled in Chicago, where Ryl’s older sister and brother-in-law lived.

Nellie Ryl attended Northwestern University as a non-degree student. In 1961 she was recruited to teach Russian at Northwestern in the newly established National Defense Education Act (NDEA) program. Nellie Ryl met her husband, Harry Weber, on her first day teaching in the NDEA program. They were married in the summer of 1961. Between the births of their first child, Fred Weber, in 1964 and their second child, Sabra Weber, in 1966, Harry Weber was hired by the University of Iowa to teach Russian. The family moved to Iowa City in 1966. Nellie Weber stayed home raising their children for about ten years before returning to work, first as a secretary at West High School and then as secretary for the Russian Department at the University of Iowa. She retired from the University of Iowa in 1993 but worked part time in a secretarial position at Kirkwood Community College, Iowa City, for four more years. In 2016, Nellie Ryl Weber published her memoir Born Stateless 1926: China.