Lucy Washburn was born on April 23, 1848, in Fredonia, New York,[1][2] south of Lake Erie.

[2] She had a younger brother, Arthur H. Washburn, a mechanical engineer and on the faculty of the San Jose State Normal School with her.

[3][2] In 1888, her brother Arthur married Jessica Benton Thompson,[4] another teacher at San Jose State Normal School.

[3] Washburn continued to teach at the San Jose State Normal School until retirement in 1900, but returned in 1914, at the start of the World War I.

After a fire destroyed the Los Gatos home in April 1939, Lucy Washburn spent her last year in Hermosa Beach.