Irene Cozad was born on the Fourth of July, 1888 in Lineville, south-central Iowa, to Joseph Addison Cozad and Olive Jane Vanderbeck. She was one of nine siblings, including Ralph E. (1878), Neva A. (1/1880), Charles Carleton (3/1/1882), William Carlisle (5/12/1884), Flora L. (5/1886), DeArcy Lelah (10/1891), Guy Erving (1/29/1894) and Anna H. (3/1896). The Cozads moved just a few miles across the state line to York, Putnam County, Missouri around 1895 or 1896, as Anna was born there. The 1900 census shows the family living in York with Joseph listed as a school teacher, the same occupation he listed in Lineville in the 1880 census.

Most of the family had moved to Kansas City by 1908. By this time Joseph was working as a funds collector for a newspaper, and William was in the circulation department of the same paper. Irene would find some success in the music field in this vibrant ragtime-rich area. She also reportedly played piano with the Kansas Symphony and prior to the publication of her two rags was listed in the 1909 city directory as a piano teacher as well as in the 1910 census. Given her modest compositional output, writing ended up being more of a hobby than a hopeful career track.

Irene's first published composition in 1910 was Affinity Rag, a gentle full four-section rag that rivaled that of the best ragtime composers from the Midwest. It was published by J.W. Jenkins Son's Music in Kansas City, and actually enjoyed fairly good distribution. It would be three years until her next composition, Eatin' Time, which would appear under her maiden name even though she was married by 1913. This suggests that it was submitted in advance of the marriage. Jenkins also had a relatively good seller with this romping rag, a piece that echoes some of the style of fellow Kansas City composer Charles L. Johnson and contained a thirty-two bar one-step dance for the trio, ahead of that trend which would become more common by 1915.

Irene married Pennsylvania born Joseph Whitman Sherer, M.D., an eye and nose specialist more than sixteen years her senior, in Kansas City on June 18, 1912. He had been previously married in November of 1906 but it is unclear what happened to that union to Margaret Chenoweth Tate. The Sherer's daughter, Jeanne M., was born in January of 1916, and Joseph Whitman, Jr., on June 28, 1918. In the 1920 enumeration Irene was listed as a homemaker. During the 1910s and as her children grew older, a few songs appeared up through 1920, including Kansas City Town which won her a $100.00 prize in a contest sponsored by the Million Population Club, an organization devoted to celebrating a population of 1,000,000 in Kansas City by 1925.

In the 1920s Irene likely got the urge to be more involved in music again. The 1930 enumeration shows that she was once again working as a pianist, although details of where she was playing were not readily found. A decade later for the 1940 enumeration, taken in Kansas City, the family was still together, with Joseph listed as a physician with a private practice, and Irene with no occupation. Dr. Sherer perished on August 17, 1940, in an automobile accident in St. Louis, which both Irene and Jeanne fortunately survived.

After that, Irene spent most of her remaining years living with children Jeanne and Joseph, the latter who continued the family's musical interest as a piano technician. She remained in the Kansas City, Missouri area living in the house her family had owned for a number of decades. One of Irene's grandchildren, John Sherer, was located there as recently as 1988 some 18 years after her death in 1970 at age 82.