Ursula Raines was born October 19, 1970 to Jacob and Lilly Raines in Huntsville, Alabama. Jacob was a mechanical engineer and Lilly was a homemaker. Jacob loved James Bond movies and the swimsuit scene in "Dr. No" provided the namesake for the family's new daughter.

As she grew older, Ursula spent time with her father in his workshop. In the evenings and on weekends, he tinkered with his own versions of James Bond's famous toys. He built small airplanes and ultra light aircraft in addition to rigging up all kinds of electrically toys to his house. Long before auto manufacturers started selling remote door openers, the Raines family had a remote control for the front door. Ursula clearly inherited her father's skill with mechanics and she won the science fair each year at school.

Life in the Raines house was good and Ursula loved her parents. Nevertheless, she always felt like an outsider with other kids. She never seemed to fit in anywhere. She could win go-cart races and things like that, but the boys seldom wanted a girl around. And she just could not get interested in the girls' make-up parties. High school consisted mostly of just doing extremely well in class and then working with her dad. Ursula didn't play on any teams and she didn't date. She got straight A's during the day and then went home and tinkered with mechanics in her father's workshop.

After high school graduation, Ursula attended Vanderbilt University. It had always been assumed that she would follow in her father's footsteps and become an engineer. But while at Vanderbilt, Ursula tired of soldering irons and metal frames. A biology class intrigued her and she began to see the human body as a mechanical instrument in it's own right. She saw the way muscles moved, the way bones supported the structure of the body, and she was fascinated by the way that her mechanical background could mesh with human flesh and blood. She decided that after finishing her undergraduate work, she would pursue a career in physical therapy.

It was also at Vanderbilt that Ursula had her first romantic relationships. Her freshman year she had dated a few times, but was never interested. She felt like an outsider to her fellow students, just like in high school. But one night while studying, her best female friend kissed her and Ursula no longer felt so alone or distant. She was strong enough, and her loving parents supportive enough, that Ursula quickly opened up as a lesbian. Ursula began dating her study partner, a biology major from Lexington, Kentucky named Leigh Burrell.

Ursula and Leigh's relationship was intensely passionate. Having spent so much time alone and on the outside looking in, Ursula was extremely possessive of her girlfriend. She showed a tendency towards jealousy and paranoia because she was so scared of losing her lover. After graduation, Ursula worked on her master's degree in physical therapy and Leigh pursued a master's in biology. Leigh soon began to feel smothered by Ursula's possessiveness. Whenever she had labs, Ursula would often walk her to the lab and then be waiting on her after it was over. Leigh struggled to work on any kind of group project because Ursula was so jealous of any classmates. As the couple neared the completion of their degrees, Leigh saw it as a natural point to end the relationship. Ursula was heartbroken.

She accepted a job with a private physical therapy practice in Oxford, Mississippi. She had wanted to work in a town with a major college so she could see treat sports injuries in addition to the more mundane disorders that are seen at physical therapy offices. Shortly after arriving in Oxford, Ursula started a relationship with a young student chemistry major. But the young girl was frightened off by Ursula's intensity and constant phone calls. She broke up with Ursula and then had to change her phone number in order to get any peace.

Ursula had been completely single for about nine months when she met Gretchen Doyle at a political fundraiser. They instantly struck up a relationship and have been dating exclusively for almost a year. Throughout her relationship with Gretchen, Ursula has struggled against her jealous tendencies and vowed to herself early on that she would not allow her jealousy to ruin another of her relationships.