Ragasdale also wrote a few plays and screenwrites were picked up for some of her novels, including the 1919 American silent drama film, Miss Dulcie from Dixie.

While a very young man, James Ragsdale chose Brookhaven, Mississippi, for permanent residence, when the Illinois Central Railroad laid its tracks through that town.

At an early age, Ragsdale became an unsatisfiable reader, always seeking the weird, the unreal, the mystic; or else, the vivid, the passionate, the glowing in prose and poetry.

The characters in her favorite books became her best friends, and in the constant company of such unreal creatures as she most fancied, her thoughts, her manners and her conversation became very odd and unchildlike.

Without interruption, Lulah continued her course of study until her graduation, age 16, always taking first rank in "expression" and composition and always just "getting-by" on mathematics.

Several of her essays having been written in verse, her English instructor, Professor R. S. Rickets, afterwards affiliated with Millsaps College, Jackson, Mississippi, urged her to take her poetry seriously and to express herself by rule of dactyl and spondee.

[2] After graduation, for a few years, Ragsdale led the visiting, dancing, happy-go-lucky life of the young "Main Street" girl but always with a latent desire burning under her other interests to go upon the stage.

[2] About this time, Ragsdale visited New York City with relatives and while there made occasion to study dramatic art with Miss Fannie Hunt, an English actress-teacher, who encouraged the young woman to go upon the stage.

Her teaching activities were numerous — as a member of the faculties of Whitworth, of Belhaven, in Jackson, Mississippi, and in the conduct of a studio in Memphis, Tennessee.

"Haunted" appeared in The Chap-Book, "If I Could Know" was printed in The Boston Arena, "Faith" in Munsey's Magazine, and other poems followed rapidly, bringing fresh honors to Ragsdale.

[3][5] In 1899, Mrs. Nelson Wheatcroft's School of Acting produced at the Empire Theatre, New York, a one-act play entitled Mother which instantly brought to the author the additional honors of playwright.

[2] In 1909, "The Mother's Son" was accepted by Harper's Weekly, and in 1910, Young's Magazine published her short stories, "The Whistlepunk", "Spangles", "The Little Ghost", and others.

The vividness of Ragsdale's portrayal of Southern life showed her familiarity with the best in it; and her metropolitan scenes are full of thrills and adventure.

Naturally, so actable a story drew the attention of picture-producers and the screen rights to Miss Dulcie of Dixie were sold to the Vitagraph Company in 1918, and produced by them with Gladys Leslie in the title-role under the direction of Joseph Gleason.

The Motion Picture News of March 22, 1918 referred to this release as "attracting widespread attention, not merely on the score of its dramatic interest, but because of its wonderfully realistic depiction of Southern manners and atmosphere.

"[2] In 1920, Ragsdale's novel, The Next-Besters, was issued by Charles Scribner's Sons and in the same year, the screen rights were purchased by Famous Players–Lasky.

[2] She lived at "Hardy House" in Brookhaven,[8] which is on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Lincoln County, Mississippi.