Jeannette Pearl Mooney was born on February 2, 1904 in Nez Perce, Idaho. She graduated from Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane, Washington in 1921. Mooney attended Mills College from 1922 to 1923, Whitman College from 1923 to 1925, and Washington State University from 1926 to 1927. She graduated from Washington State University with a degree in Music, but studied English at Mills College and Whitman College. She then attended graduate school at University of Washington, and earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree in library science from the University of Washington in 1930. She went on to work in the Seattle Public Library as a substitute librarian, the University of Washington library as a junior librarian in the circulation division, and Parrington Branch Library as an assistant librarian. During her time at Parrington Branch Library, Mooney was also a co-owner of the Windjammer Bookshop in Seattle, Washington.

From 1946 to 1961, she worked for the School of Fisheries and the Fisheries Research Institute in Alaska as a secretary and research librarian. She returned to the University of Washington as a foreign documents librarian in 1961. Mooney was an active member of the Seattle chapter of Zonta, International, a global organization for women’s empowerment. She died on May 22, 1979 at the age of 75.