Lucille Wallower (1910–1999)

Lucille Wallower was born in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, the state in which she lived for most of her life. She attended the Pennsylvania Museum School of Art and the Traphagen School of Fashion in New York City. In 1937, she published her debut book, Nanka of Old Bohemia. Shortly after, she became a school librarian at the Harrisburg Public Library, and within a year, she was promoted to children's librarian. Her first self-illustrated book, A Conch Shell for Molly, was published in 1940 and became a Junior Literary Guild Selection. In 1959, she became the children's librarian at the Abington Library in Jenkintown. In 1972, she was promoted to head librarian. Three years later, she began a full-time career as a freelance writer and illustrator.

She published more than 40 works of fiction and nonfiction for children, often with her own illustrations, including geographies; many of these focused on different aspects of Pennsylvania history.