Hattie LeNoir‐Price was born Hattie Dean LeNoir in Tylertown, Mississippi, on November 23, 1950. She was raised in Gulfport, Mississippi and Champaign, Illinois. She graduated from Central High School, Parkland Community College, and has both Bachelors and Masters degrees from the University of Illinois. She is currently enrolled in the Department of Social Work. She been involved with the SOAR after‐school project at the U of I/Booker T. Washington School, the Wesley Foundation Food Pantry, the Restorative Justice project at the Champaign County Court Diversion Services, the Black History Committee, the Women Safe‐House Steering Committee, YWCA. She has also been a GED instructor. She is the fifth of ten children of Helen Inez (nee Brock) and John Wesley LeNoir, Sr. Her father was a Construction worker. Her mother was a Food Production Supervisor at the University of Illinois.

Hattie was featured in Difference Makers 2010: An eBlack Champaign-Urbana Publication.