Leila Harber was born in a small town in Arkansas in 1940, second child in a sharecropper's family. As the first girl, she became "mother's helper" to seven other children.  As a teenager in the 50s she "came of age" in an idyllic time and place.  She was awarded a scholarship to a business college in a nearby town, immediately after graduation from high school. 

Leila has two children, but no grandchildren.  She retired at age 60, after working twenty years for the Air Force in programs supporting the space industry in Florida. She traveled in Europe with her son when he was stationed in Germany with the Army, and later, she joined her daughter, stationed with the Army in Berlin.  She has traveled widely, having spent time in France, Switzerland, Italy, and Austria, as well as Germany.  She is now a writer living in Florida.