Elizabeth Lathrop Rowell was born on January 28, 1882 in Warren, Massachusetts to Timothy Bryant Rowell and Bessie Champion Lathrop Rowell. She attended West Springfield High School then went to Mount Holyoke College between 1899 and 1904, majoring in French. In 1906 Rowell took a year of teacher training at Westfield Normal School (Massachusetts). She taught at the Riverdale Street School (Westfield, Massachusetts) from 1907-1911 and worked in the Westfield assessor's office from 1911 until her retirement in 1951. She died at age 103 in West Springfield, Massachusetts on September 29, 1985.