The author and illustrator Michelle Ingraham was born January 11, 1968 growing up by a lake nestled amidst the rolling hills of a rural NY town named Smyrna. She was the youngest of four children and the only daughter. Michelle developed an early interest in illustrating, writing and playing classical music on the piano. At age fourteen, Michelle published her first written work in Horse Of Course, a horsemen’s periodical for children. At age eighteen, she illustrated a children’s story that her father published titled “Millard”. Weeks before her passing, Michelle had finished writing another story book, “Willy Of The Valley”, and was in the process of completing the illustrations. Michelle was an accomplished illustrator of cards for all occasions and holidays and was well known for sending out cards of her own individual creations to friends and family. Adapted from an obituary in the Mid-York Weekly, August 1987