Lucy Pugh was born in Bennett, North Carolina. She graduated from a local high school in 1940 and then went to work at cotton mills in nearby towns of Coleridge and Robbins.
Pugh enlisted in the Coast Guard SPARS in Fall 1943 at a recruiting station in Lexington. She attended basic training in West Palm Beach, Florida, and then in January 1944 was sent to St. Louis, Missouri, where she initially did maintenance work in a machine shop. Pugh was transferred shortly thereafter to sentry duty at the barracks and also performed switchboard and elevator operating duties. In fall 1944 she began work in the 9th District Headquarters, where she performed the same duties until her discharge in the summer of 1945.
Pugh married in 1949. She worked at a mill in Siler City, North Carolina, and then in 1947 went to work for Sears-Roebuck in Greensboro, North Carolina, from which she retired in 1960. She remained active in SPARS reunions.
