Marylois Dunn, daughter of F. S. and Ruth Alice Hawkes Dunn, was born in Uvalde, Texas on August 18, 1930. Her family moved to Nacogdoches, Texas when she was eleven and she attended public schools there. After completing a Bachelor of Arts at Stephen F. Austin State University, she joined the library staff at Burbank Jr. High in Houston in 1951. She obtained a Master of Science in Library Science from Louisiana State University and became Librarian at Black Jr. High in Houston in 1957. She retired from Black Jr. High in 1981 but later worked part-time at the Ralph W. Steen Library at SFA. Marylois has published poetry and short stories in periodicals, including Ellery Queen. Her first novel for young people, The Man in the Box: A Story from Vietnam (1968), received the Sequoyah Children's Book Award, based on the votes of young readers, in 1972. At the Pineywoods Writers Conference in 1968 she won First Place for a juvenile book-length manuscript, Timber Pirates. With Ardath Mayhar of Chireno, Texas she published The Absolutely Perfect Horse (originally titled Dogmeat) in 1983.