Author and educator Mildred Lewis Rutherford was born in Athens, Georgia on July 16, 1851. A graduate of Lucy Cobb Institute in Athens in 1868, she taught in Atlanta before returning to Athens as the principal of Lucy Cobb in 1880. Rutherford was involved in the United Daughters of the Confederacy for five years. As an historian, she advocated for the Confederacy and is associated with the Lost Cause school of thought. She fell ill in 1927 and died on August 15, 1928.