Thelma N. (Schlup) Shutters was born in Kansas City, Mo., 1945, to Jesse A. and Bessie A. Schlup. Her father died in 1947. Her mother remarried in 1953 to Edgar A. Poe, together they had three children. She grew up in southwest Missouri, USA where she still resides. She moved to a small town in the same area in Vernon County, Schell City, Mo., in 1995. March 1st., 2002 at the age of fifty-seven She wrote her first poem (Porcelain Angel) Since then her poems has been published in numerous poetry books, and in the local newspapers. She is a wife and a mother of five grown children, she now has fifteen grandchildren and two great grandchildren. Thelma was a waitress for many years, which she loved because of all the wonderful people she got to know in southwestern, Missouri.