Velma Skott Teeple was born on February 1, 1913, the youngest of eight children of Hans and Helene Elissat Skott. Her father was a co-founder of Farmers' Union Cooperative Creamery in Buckhorn, Jackson County, Iowa. Velma Skott Teeple attended rural school and boarded in Maquoketa to attend high school. During high school, she took the Normal Training Course and after graduation, taught rural school for four years. She continued taking teaching courses at Iowa State Teachers' College (University of Northern Iowa) and in Vermilian, South Dakota.

In 1938, she resigned from her teaching career to marry the local farmer Paul Teeple. Together they lived near Baldwin, Iowa for two years. In 1940, they bought a farm outside of Monmouth, Iowa, where they lived for forty-five years and raised three daughters, Carmin, Rosemary, and Patricia. The family was active in the church, school, 4-H, and Farm Bureau.

Velma Teeple also taught in Monmouth's elementary school for a total of eighteen years. She became an active volunteer with the Jackson County Historical Society after retiring in 1985. Teeple pursued her interest in writing through a correspondence writing course and an eight-week writing course for senior citizens. She wrote "The Stuff of Life," "The Way it Was," and a "Meddle of Memories" for her daughters. She was also involved in the publication of the Skott History (1984). She researched the histories of her farm community when she decided to write reminiscence about Buckhorn, a small community with few remaining inhabitants and few written records.