May Justus was an author of numerous children's books, many of which were set in Appalachia. She was born on May 12, 1898, in Del Rio, Tennessee, to Stephen and Margaret (Brooks) Justus. She attended the University of Tennessee for coursework to be a teacher between 1923 and 1938. During her twenty-five years of teaching, she began to write stories based on her own experiences as a little girl and on folk songs and tales passed on to her by her mother. Even after retiring from teaching to focus on her writing, she continued a children’s story-and-song program and for twenty years maintained a children's library in her attic. Justus received several literary awards, among them the Julia Ellsworth Ford Prize for Gabby Gaffer's New Shoes in 1935 and for Near-Side-And-Far in 1936 and the Boy's Club Award in 1950 for Luck for Little Lulu. Justus also volunteered with the Highlander Folk School beginning in 1932, and she was active in integrating Tennessee schools in the 1950s. She died in Tennessee on November 7, 1989, and is buried in Summerfield Cemetery in Grundy County, Tennessee.