Penny Carlile was born in Marshall, Texas, and grew up, not coincidentally, on Rusk Street. She and her husband now divide their time between Marshall and Naples, Florida.

Carlile earned her bachelor of arts in English and speech from Baylor University in 1973. She taught junior high school before she co-founded a direct sales company with her husband. It was during her time as president of the company that she wrote her first book, Points from Penny.

The Girl on Rusk Street is fiction, but many of the events in the book are straight out of Carlile's own childhood.