Maud Hart Lovelace was an American writer, best known for the Betsy-Tacy series. She was born on April 25, 1892, in Mankato, Minnesota. She was the middle of three children born to Thomas and Stella (Palmer) Hart. Her sister, Kathleen, was three years older, and her other sister, Helen, was six years younger. "That dear family" was the model for the fictional Ray family in her books.

Maud’s birthplace was a small house on a hilly residential street several blocks above Mankato’s central business district. The street, Center Street, dead-ended at one of the town’s many hills. When Maud was a few months old, the Hart family moved two blocks up the street to 333 Center. Shortly before Maud’s fifth birthday, a "large merry Irish family" moved into the house directly across the street.