- Helped evacuate hundreds of Vietnamese orphans at the end of the Vietnam War. She adopted three of these, all girls, in 1976: Nguyet Baty, Ba-Nhi Mai and Kim Thuy. The eldest, Ngyuet, who is part African American and part Vietnamese, has three children (one named Ina). In the made-for-television movie The Children of an Lac (1980) (in which all three of Balin's daughters appeared), Shirley Jones starred as real-life Red Cross volunteer Betty Tisdale, who along with Balin, rescued 219 orphans right before the fall of Saigon. Tisdale and her own husband, Patrick, adopted five Vietnamese girls from An Lac and continued to raise funds for An Lac from their home base in Ft. Benning and Columbus, Georgia.
- Once while traveling in Madrid, she witnessed a car accident in which a car had overturned. With a sheer rush of adrenaline, she managed to free the motorist by the time a crowd formed and applauded her efforts.
- Was also a published photographer and the co-owner of the Balin-Traube Art Gallery in New York which operated on East 74th Street for three years in the early 1960's.
- Ina was about 15 years old when she was hired to play the Virgin Mary in Perry Como's nativity scene on his Christmas TV show, which she did for a couple of years.
- Her father, Sam Rosenberg, was once a song-and-dance performer who worked the Borscht Belt with Danny Kaye. Sam's parents were prominent furriers who threatened to cut him off if he did not leave show business. After he left he became very successful in the fur business in his own right. Balin's parents divorced when she was nine years old. Her stepfather, Harold Balin (born Harold Balinky -1904-1958), was a wealthy shoe magnate. He adopted Ina and her brother, actor Richard Balin (who later wed Rochelle Balin).
- Ina lost two big roles to Natalie Wood in her early career. She lost the title role in Marjorie Morningstar (1958) and was tested for and seriously considered for the part of Maria in West Side Story (1961).
- Balin had two stepbrothers, David Balin and Richard Rosenthal, and one stepsister Arline Kronengold. She was aunt to producer/director/writer Melissa Balin and film editor Brandon Balin. Richard Rosenthal was a top Wall Street executive until his death after crashing his private Beechcraft airplane. Flying from Syracuse, New York to Washington D.C., Richard was able to guide the malfunctioning plane into a sparsely-populated area that probably saved many people's lives. He was the only casualty. The Richard G. Rosenthal Jewish Community Center of Northern Westchester was created in his honor by the family.
- Was a student of Lonny Chapman and Curt Conway in an off-shoot of the Actors Studio. It was later taken over by Milton Katselas, Allan Miller and John Lehne.
- Aunt to producer/director/writer Melissa Balin and film editor Brandon Balin.
- Graduated from Forest Hills High School in Forest Hills, Queens, New York at age 16.
- After her mother married Harold Balin she lived at 64-20 Saunders Street in Rego Park. Queens, New York.
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