I was born in Raleigh, North Carolina on September 26, 1954, to Willis and Ruth McLamb of Benson. Almost immediately I became a "Daddy's Girl." My mother was a 3rd grade school teacher (for 42 years) and my father was a tobacco farmer and rodeo producer and stock contractor. I rode a horse before I walked! I attended Benson schools until our area schools consolidated to form South Johnston High. I graduated from SJ in 1972 and became a Wolfpacker at N. C. State University. I earned my BA in English and Teacher Education Certificate at Cambpell University in 1977 and began teaching English at my alma Mater. In 1984 I received my MA in English from N. C. State and worked there as a TA in the English Department before returning to teach at Smithfield-Selma High School. There I taught Honors English and was newspaper, yearbook, and literary journal adviser. I returned to school and received my MLS from North Carolina Central University. I spent my last years in Johnston County Schools as a media and technology coordinator at Four Oaks Middle School.
I married Sexton Gerald Blackmon in 1993. He passed away in 2011. I have three step-children and three step-grandchildren. I live on the family farm in Benson.
I began writing poetry in the 7th grade and wrote off and on through the years. I took several creative writing classes (two under NC Poet Laureates Shelby Stephenson and the late Kathryn Stripling Byer.) I have had many poems published in "little magazines" and poetry journals. Finishing Line Press published by first collection of poems, Daddy Said, in 2020. I am an active member of the Johnston County Writer's Group and the North Carolina Writer's Network.