Lucy Foster Madison (April 8, 1865 โ March 16, 1932) was an American novelist and teacher.
Born Lucy Foster in Kirksville, Missouri, the daughter of George W. Foster and Almira Parker,[1][2] she graduated from high school in Louisiana, Missouri.[3] Her father, mother, and brother all died[1] while she was a teen,[2] leaving her to care for her two younger sisters. She became a school teacher in Louisiana, Missouri, then in Kansas City, Missouri. In 1890 she was married to Winfield Scott Madison.[1]
In 1893, the offer of a prize by a New York newspaper interested her enough to enter a short story and she won second place. She became a writer of both short stories and novels, plus a compiler of various Chautauqua assemblies.[1] Her series of "Peggy Owens" stories and other tales for girls were popular early in the twentieth century. Her husband began to suffer ill health, so they moved to a farm near Hudson Falls, New York in 1924. She died there in 1932, a few days after she had a stroke.[2]