Lucy Meacham (Kidd) Thruston was born on March 29th, 1862 in to John Meacham Kidd and Elizabeth Rebecca Adams Kidd, an old Virginia family. Being from Virginia inspired her to write works such as A Girl of Virginia (published in 1902) to which tells a story about a “loveable light spirited daughter of a professor of the University of Virginia” while giving details about the college from the point of view of those who live around it.
She moved to Baltimore when she was 12, graduated from Maryland-State Normal School at Towson (not the State Teachers’ College) and taught for a little there. She married her husband Julius Thruston who was from Baltimore on February 14th, 1887, which let’s be honest is so romantic! From a young age, Thruston has claimed to always being a “some-what romantic” and enjoyed writing. Her first publication Songs of the Chesapeake was quickly followed by her most well-known novel Mistress Brent: A Story of Lord Baltimore’s colony in 1638 in 1901, intentionally bringing together history and fiction of Maryland. This publication familiarized her name among not only Baltimoreans, but the country.
Her love and pride of being a Southern woman is seen in her other publications including Jack and His Island: A Boy’s Adventures along the Chesapeake in the War of 1812 1902, Where the Tide Comes In 1904, Called to the Field: A Story of Virginia in the Civil War 1906, and Jenifer in 1907 which takes place in the Carolina mountains. Her love for history of the South can be seen in all her publications, she even says in The Baltimore Sun, “I often feel that history often throws light on the facts of today, and that the present day in turn can throw light on the facts of history”.
In 1915 publication of The Baltimore Sun, she told of her writing short stories and articles in order to spend more time with her family. November 27, 1938 Thruston passed away after a really bad fall, leaving behind her two daughter Miss Augusta Thruston (who she lived with after the death of her husband in 1920) and Mrs. James Miller Leake who moved to Florida. She was a much loved and praised author during her time and years to follow. Although she has been seemingly left in the early 20th, she was much loved and adored for her love of the history and the South.