Noel Smith was born and raised in New York City. After graduating from Wellesley College she became a social worker under Mary Breckinridge at the Frontier Nursing Service in Hyden, a community in Leslie County in Eastern Kentucky. Now retired from teaching in elementary school, she spends as much time as she can visiting in Eastern Kentucky. She lives in New York’s Hudson Valley with her husband Peter Fernandez, a writer, director and actor best known for the Speed Racer animated series.