Lucy Louisa Coues Flower was born on May 10, 1837, in Boston, Massachusetts, the daughter of Samuel E. Coues and Charlotte H. Ladd. Most of her childhood was spent in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
In 1853 her father received an appointment in the government service and moved to Washington, District of Columbia.
Lucy was sent to school at the Packer Collegiate Institute, Brooklyn, New York, but was forced to leave before graduating.
For a time Flower worked in the United States Patent Office as a draftsman. In 1859 she accepted a position in the public schools of Madison, Wisconsin, and a year later she was appointed assistant in the Madison High School.
In 1862, when the public schools were closed for lack of funds, the building was lent to Miss Flower for the purpose of conducting a private school.
In 1873 Flower moved to Chicago. She devoted her educational interests to various Chicago institutions. She became a member of the board of management of the Half-Orphan Asylum and later a member of the board of the Chicago Home for the Friendless.
In 1886 she prepared for the state legislature of Illinois a bill providing for an industrial school for homeless boys. The bill was defeated but it aroused considerable attention and subsequently such a school was started under private management.
In 1888 Flower was influential in organizing the Lake Geneva Fresh Air Association and for three years had complete charge of the selection of children to be sent to the camp.
In 1891 she was appointed a member of the Chicago school board — the third woman to hold that position — and served until 1894. She worked to establish industrial training and kindergartens in the public schools.
Following this incumbency Flower became a trustee of the University of Illinois. With the decline of her health, she moved to Coronado, California, where her remaining years were spent in leisure. She died on April 27, 1921, at the age of eighty-four.
Lucy Louisa Coues Flower was a welfare worker, a leader in efforts to provide services for poor and dependent children, to expand the offerings of public education, and to establish a juvenile court system. Chicago's Lucy Flower Playlot Park was renamed in her honor in 2005 (formerly the People's Park).
On September 4, 1862, Lucy Louisa Coues married James M. Flower, a lawyer of Madison. They had three children.
