Louise Katherine Brown Hastings (1901-1987) was born in Grovania, Georgia, to parents H. Rutherford Brown and Betty Daniel Brown. She graduated from Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia, and attended the Marine Biological Institute in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. She married Donald M. Hastings (1901-1991) in 1924 and they had two children, Mary Louise (later Mary Louise Clarke) (approximately 1926- ) and Donald M. Hastings, Jr. (1929-2013). In 1942, Donald M. Hastings, Sr. succeeded his father as president of the family mail order seed nursery, H. G. Hastings Company of Atlanta, Georgia. Louise Hastings was the 1935 president of the Habersham Garden Club of Atlanta, Georgia, with whom she wrote a flower show guidebook. She served as president of The Garden Club of Georgia, Inc. from 1936 to 1938 and was an officer for the National Council of State Garden Clubs, Inc. in 1940. Louise and husband Donald co-wrote The Southern Garden Book in 1948. She also served on the Board of Directors and Advisory Committee of Atlanta's Women of the Year organization. She was a member of the Atlanta Music Club, the Atlanta Opera Guild, the National Society of Colonial Dames of America, and the National Society of Magna Carta Dames. In addition, Hastings was a popular garden speaker and noted flower arranger.