Jill McElmurry was born in Los Angeles, California on November 3, 1954. She studied art at the State University of New York at Purchase and the School of Visual Arts in New York. She worked for 20 years illustrating magazines, book covers, posters, and design projects for clients in the United States and Germany.
She went on to become a children's author and illustrator. Her first book, Mad About Plaid, was published in 2000. She illustrated more than 20 picture books including four of which she also wrote. She illustrated The Tree Lady written by Joseph Hopkins and the Little Blue Truck series written by Alice Schertle. She later became painter. She sold more than 60 paintings of New Mexican and Northern Minnesotan landscapes. She died from breast cancer on August 3, 2017 at the age of 62.
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