Maude Elizabeth Vincent was born on September 21, 1890, in Coin, Iowa to Adrian and Jane Eliza Alton Vincent. Growing up in a rural-poor environment, the family was constantly moving. While working as a switchboard operator for Southwestern Bell at the Arlington Hotel in Hot Springs, Garland County, Arkansas, she met her husband, Benjamin Hubbard Noel. The company moved them to Little Rock, Pulaski County, Arkansas, and it was there that the couple's son Ben and daughter Clara Jean were born. The family lived in Little Rock until 1930 when Noel's husband took a job with another telephone company and moved the family to Bryan, Texas. There, the couple's third child, Robert, was born. During the Great Depression, Noel's husband lost his job and the family moved to West Fork, Washington County, Arkansas. There, Noel became the owner of the West Fork Telephone Company. Her husband died in 1937, and she remained in West Fork until 1950. She lived in Fayetteville, Washington County, Arkansas before moving to Winfield, Kansas where she died on January 2, 1979.