Flora Effie Strout was born in
Mechanic Falls, Maine, April 28, 1867. She was educated in the public and normal schools of
Maine. Later, she took courses at
Johns Hopkins University and two courses at
Harvard University. Strout began her career as a teacher. In 1889, she taught for 24 weeks at
West Harpswell, Maine. For the following two years, she taught at
Lyman School for Boys, a state
reform school in
Westborough, Massachusetts. Strout taught various subjects at Morgan College (geology and astronomy, 1893–94; 18th-century literature, 1905) and also served as principal. She wrote the university's
alma mater (official song). Representing Maryland, Strout was a delegate at the
American Woman Suffrage Association's 25th annual convention held in
Washington, D.C., 1893, and was a member of the Program Committee for the 37th annual convention held at
Portland, Oregon, in 1905. She was also a delegate representing Maryland at the National WCTU's 34th Annual Convention held at
Nashville, Tennessee, in 1906. On behalf of the World's WCTU, in 1926, she was in Brazil; and in 1940, she was in
Cape Town, South Africa and then
Trinidad. Her success came from having the ability to absorb the cultures of the foreign countries she visited while working for the World's WCTU (1910–42) as an official round-the-world missionary. She was able to put Christianity aside and focus on the promotion of temperance societies among other religions. She died in
Arlington, Massachusetts, November 5, 1962, and was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery, Middlesex, Massachusetts. ==Selected works==