Miss Yolanda Bonfiglio was born in Manhattan, New York, USA on 5 December 1909. She was the daughter of Italian migrants Pellegrino Bonfiglio, a soap and olive oil merchant, and the former Rosina Pizzitola who had come to the USA in 1896 from their native Palermo. She had an older brother, John.

By 1910 Yolanda lived with her family at West 83rd Street, Manhattan. In April 1912 she, along with her mother and brother, boarded the Carpathia as second cabin passengers and were headed to a vacation in Italy. Whilst aboard they witnessed the rescue of the survivors of the Titanic disaster.

In the following years Yolanda returned with her family to Palermo where in 1918 she was gifted with a younger brother, Severino, known as Sam. In 1921 the whole family returned to the USA where her brother John had become a prominent physician; they moved to Los Angeles where Yolanda attended High School in Beverly Hills.

Yolanda never married and in later years operated her own liquor store. She died in Los Angeles on 22 November 1957 and was buried with her family in Forest Lawn Memorial Park.