Lois Sutphin was born in 1934 at the Sutphin family's Old Home Place, which is pictured on the cover of her cookbook, Making Do: How to Cook Like a Mountain MeMa (cowritten with Gina Farago). Tucked amid the folds of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the small community of Laurel Fork, Virginia, was Lois's home for 48 years. She moved to Robbins, North Carolina, in 1982, where her delicious dishes continued to grace the dinnertable for her family and friends until she passed away in 2007.