She was born October 19, 1888, in
Bloomington, Illinois, the daughter of Lucy Barron White and John James Speed Wilson Jr. When Wilson was about 2, her father died and her mother took the young Lucy and her baby brother to live with their grandparents in Bloomington. Wilson and her family were Episcopalian. Wilson began attending
Wellesley College in 1905, and attributed her choice of schooling to her high school mathematics teacher, Miss Ethel Cobb, also a Wellesley graduate (class of 1899). At Wellesley, Wilson took classes in multiple subjects including psychology from
Eleanor Gamble and physics from
Sarah Frances Whiting. She became a professor in physics and psychology in 1935. This dual appointment was a result of work in both perception and optics. The first year she worked more in psychology than in physics. She taught introductory physics course, optics, meteorology, and in conjunction with Helen Jones, a combined physics/chemistry course. A popular course that she taught was automobile mechanics. From 1938 she also held administrative positions, beginning with acting dean of the college in 1938 and then as the college's first dean of students in 1939. In 1945 she was named the first
Sarah Frances Whiting Professor, a position created in honor of the Wellesley College physicist and astronomer Sarah Frances Whiting. Wilson retired in 1954, following which the senior class established a scholarship fund in her name. Wilson died on September 22, 1980, in
Wellesley, Massachusetts. ==Positions==