B. Helen Dobbins Dobbs was born in Alvarado, Texas, grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, and graduated from Shaw University (Raleigh, NC) in 1922, and went on to attend Boston University, the Cleveland College and the Cleveland Music School Institute (Cleveland, OH). Her poetry has been published in the New York Mission, "American Voices," "The Caravan of Verse," "Contemporary American Writers," and others, and her song lyrics for "Sing a Song of Rainbows" and "Don't Worry About it" were recorded by the Snyder Record company. In addition to her poetry, she was also an accomplished painter, excelling in drawing with chalk, crayons, pen and ink, and pencil. She worked in the Phillis Wheatley Association, served as a teacher in the Board of Education nursery and canteen schools of Detroit, as a professional nanny, among other positions.