Trina was born on April 8, 1939 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She has one sister, Karleen.

Trina’s love of drawing was developed early in her childhood. She was a very shy child, and was afraid of many things. She played fantasy games with her sister, Karleen and drew a lot.

For college, she studied at the Philadelphia Museum College of Art from 1956 to 1959.

In 1959, she married Harris Hyman and they moved to Boston. She studied at the Boston Museum School of Fine
Arts for one year. She and her husband then moved to Sweden where she got her first illustration job with Brown and Little.

Her daughter, Katrin, was born in 1963. In 1968 she and her husband divorced.

She worked at Cricket magazine as an art director and later artist creating the iconic “Miss Ladybug” shown in many of Cricket’s stories.

She won her first award (Horn Award) for King Stork in 1973.

She went on to illustrate over 150 children’s book in her life. She said she used her daughter as the model
for the heroine for many of her books. She is noted for her inclusion of black children in her works, which she based on her grandchild.

Trina primarily worked in pen and ink, and watercolor gauche.

Trina died in November, 2004.

Prints of her work can be seen at the Children at Heart Gallery, run by her daughter.