Sutcliffe was born in Benson (present-day city of Omaha), Nebraska, USA, on 1 October 1906, as the second of four children born to parents August Gustaf Liesche (1877–1955) and Maude Adams (1883–1915). Her father was born in Germany. Her siblings were: Marie Elise Kelso (1904–2011), Eldred Almus Liesche (1909–1979) and Wallace A. Liesche (1915–1916). In November 1915, her mother passed away. Sutcliffe was 9 years old at the time. Her father later married Mattie Louise Anderson (1885–1956). She graduated from Benson High School in Omaha.

On 3 September 1924, at the age of 17, she married William Ted Sutcliffe (1902–1971) in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The couple had no children. She survived two bouts of breast cancer over the course of her life. In the 1940s, she worked for the War Department, but otherwise she was a housewife.

At the age of 97, she gave up driving when she could no longer see green lights clearly. Her older sister, Marie Elise Kelso, died in Arizona in March 2011, aged 106. At the age of 107, she still lived independently and was an avid bridge player at the time, even when she became a supercentenarian. In 2021, she moved to Brighton Gardens assisted living facility. When asked about the secret of her longevity, she attributed it to the fact that she never smoked, didn’t have children and refused to worry about anything.

Sutcliffe passed away in Omaha, Nebraska, USA, on 17 January 2022, at the age of 115 years, 108 days.