Born in Morrisville, North Carolina, she studied at the Art Students League, the Pennsylvania Academy as well as with Charles W. Hawthorne.

[1] Pugh then established her professional career in New York, contributing illustrations to McCall's, Ladies' Home Journal, The Forum and Survey Graphic.

Her exhibition awards include Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1920 and the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors in 1934.

[2] Three portraits, of Clifford Hope,[3] Harold D. Cooley,[4] and Herbert Bonner,[5] are in the collection of the United States House of Representatives.

[6][7][8] Her home at Morrisville, the Pugh House, which she sold in 1958, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.