Mary Belle Harwich lives with her husband, Murray, in Glencoe, Illinois, and divides her time visiting her family, children and grandchildren in Kentucky, Virginia and Ohio. She has a Master of Science degree in Education with a concentration as a Reading Specialist. In 1990 Green Tiger Press published Shell of Wonder, which she co-authored with John Hay. John Williams Hay is a Kentucky poet and fiction writer whose children's book, ROVER AND COO COO, won The Friends Of American Writers Juvenile Fiction Award. Barbour Lee was born in Frankfort, Kentucky, graduated from the University of Kentucky with a BS in mathematics, and then went to Washington, D. C., to work as a research mathematician at the US Naval Research Laboratory. From "paperdoll days" onward, she has loved to draw and paint.

After moving to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, she and her husband owned and operated a national mail order business to sell limited edition art prints made from her country paintings. Advertisements in popular magazines led to selling these prints throughout the US and Canada and in a number of countries worldwide. For country style paintings, Lee's chosen medium is acrylic paints, for landscapes and still lifes, she prefers pastels. Now, back in her native state of Kentucky, she has embarked on a new (ad)venture in illustrating a children's book.