Darlene Kinzer was born to the proud parents of Julia Lee Tidwell and Seth (S.A.) Aaron Patton on April 17, 1966 in Maury County Hospital in Columbia, Tennessee. As a child she was raised in the rural area of the city and later moved to the east side of town to continue her rearing with the help of her uncle and grandmother. While in grade school, she became fascinated with the art of poetry. She went to a predominately all black grade school within walking distance from her home. After attending elementary school she later went to junior high school and dabbled in poetry. It was in high school when she began to keep a journal and began writing. She left high school in 1985 and did not finish until her senior year. "To me it just didn't feel right going back to school when every one thought I graduated" she stated; so she went on to start working at a Krogers in Columbia, TN. She got married in 1986 to Bobby Kinnard Kinzer a year after high school in which, by this time she did not want to go back and finish what she started. She later worked for several years then went to take her G.E.D. test and failed three times. This did not stop her from getting what God had in store for her. She continued to work at Krogers as a bakery clerk until 1996. She then started to work fro another company for a couple of years, went to work for Albertsons until 2002, in which she became trained as a bakery clerk. She moved on to Sears and worked fulltime as a cashier until 2006; quit and became a night manager at a clothing store a couple blocks from Sears. She worked at the local retailer until 2007. Soon after she went back to work at Kroger for another year before going to her last job for a company that helps with taking care of individuals with mental challenges until her health seriously failed in 2008. Through all of this, God saw fit for her to endure the many obstacles that was ahead. Since then she went back to take her GED courses in February 2008, in which she took classes for almost a year; it paid off, "To God Be the Glory" because she graduated in June 2009!