Marilyn Tinnin grew up in Indianola, Mississippi. Her mother, Marie Hemphill, was an award winning journalist and the author of Fevers, Floods, and Faith, a comprehensive history of Sunflower County, Mississippi. Marilyn graduated with honors from Indianola High School and attended the University of Mississippi where she was active in campus honoraries and the recipient of numerous awards. She graduated from Mississippi College in 1973 and received a Masters of Music in Piano Performance in 1975. She was honored by Mississippi College as their Music Department’s Outstanding Alumni in 2007.
After a career as a private piano teacher and church pianist, she followed in her mother’s journalistic steps to her lifelong dream of writing. She is the former editor and publisher of Jackson Christian Family leaving that publication in 2006 to launch Metro Christian Living. She has done free lance writing for speakers, Bible teachers, and the Mississippi Fellowship of Christian Athletes. She has written for numerous publications including Guideposts, and is an award winning member of Southern Christian Writers. A sustaining member of the Junior League of Jackson, she is also a member of the Downtown Rotary Club and First Presbyterian Church. Marilyn serves as a board member of Goodwill Industries and Mission Mississippi. She was named one of Mississippi’s 50 Leading Business Women for 2006 by the Mississippi Business Journal. She is married to Charles Tinnin and she is the mother of Betsy Smith of Birmingham, Alabama, and Lem Smith IV of Denver, Colorado.
