Lillian was born in Herndon, Virginia to her parents Hattie and Melvin Ellis. She had eight siblings; June, Ethel, Frank, Sherlie, Connie,Larry,Lou, and Emmy. She spent her early years building everlasting bonds with her brothers and sisters. They would sit on the stoop and listen to one of her favorite artists Marvin Gaye when she lived in the city.

She married Charles Walter Black Sr. and lived in Washington, D.C. where she was a stay at home wife and mother . So much of a mother she turned down a job to be an architectural engineer; She later moved to South Carolina, where she raised her children- Charlene Marionette Black (Dozier), Charles Walter Black Jr, Corey Melvin Black, and Terrence Adam Black.

Her time in the south was spent running a small restaurant and Black’s Exxon filling station in Johnston. Lil also worked for a nursing home in Edgefield and the Daycare Center with her life long friend and pastor Judy Laymon. She was a mother of mothers, raising not only her children, and grandchildren, but others as well from the daycare to her church family; Lil was a joy to all.