Gussie, nee Gitel Gniazdowicz, was born in the Lomza region of Poland and immigrated to the United States in 1920 with her mother Sura Rywka. She grew up in the Bensonhurst area of Brooklyn with her parents and her sisters Pearl and Miriam.

She met and married Jerry Smolinsky in 1936. Jerry would open a very popular delicatessen on 65th Street in Brooklyn.

They had two children, Harvey and Barbara.