Lynne Barnes was born in Georgia and moved to New York City in 1968 with a front row ticket to Hair, before migrating to San Francisco in 1969, two years after the Summer of Love. She has worked as a nurse on psych emergency units and oncology wards, and as a librarian in San Francisco's Public Libraries. She was part of a commune that thrived for twenty years in the Haight Ashbury. She lives with her beloved partner, Carole.