Harriet E. Flowers was born in 1927 in Mankato, Minnesota, to Harry and Ida Cooper. She spent her youth in Minnesota and graduated from Mankato High School in 1945. Harriet enrolled in the Cadet Nurse Corps program and later received her nursing degree from St. Mary’s Hospital in Rochester, Minnesota. She returned to Mankato, where she worked as a family practice nurse before her marriage to Floyd Flowers in 1953. Three children soon followed, and Harriet chose to stay at home to care for her family. After the Flowers moved to DeKalb in 1967, Harriet resumed her nursing career, and she worked at the former DeKalb County Lung Clinic until she retired in 1981. 

Harriet attended the Westminster Presbyterian Church and was a member of the Church Women’s Circle. She served many years as a volunteer at the Country Store, a resale store that supports the senior services at the Family Service Agency of DeKalb County. Her late husband, Floyd, was the agency’s executive director for 14 years. 

Harriet’s husband created the Floyd Flowers Family Service Agency Endowment Fund shortly before his death in 2008. The Fund helps the agency carry out its mission and provides a lasting tribute to the agency that Floyd loved. Harriet passed away in 2014. The Fund received a number of memorial contributions made in her honor.