Stella Penny lived in the Borden/Gnowangerup area where her father worked for farmers and so the family frequently moved. Her father was Jim Woods and her mother, Florrie Colbung. Because her father's work was seasonal, the family lived in tents between jobs, at White Dam, which was like a reserve just outside of Borden.
Penny did not have much schooling; however, her father taught her the old way of drawing in the sand. She later married Gordon Penny and had four children and they were the last family to live on the Gnowangerup Mission before moving to the reserve. Penny is an Elder from the City of Albany, a committee member for the Commission of Elders for the Great Southern Region and has completed a series of paintings in 2000 called 'This Great Land of Ours'.