MacIntyre's father, Malcolm, was a mechanical engineer whilst her mother Grace (born Hamilton)[3] was a skilled artist.

[4] During the second World War Darling worked for the U.S. Navy where she combined her artistic skills and her interest in sailing by creating models of warships.

Darling built a model of HMS Beagle for the American Museum of Natural History and then continued to gather information on the vessel.

[5] In 1962, the Darlings' friend Roger Tory Peterson suggested to author Rachel Carson that Louis and Lois be hired to illustrate her forthcoming book, Silent Spring.

[7] Darling died at age seventy-two on December 19, 1989, of leukemia at Lawrence and Memorial Hospital in New London, Connecticut.