Pearl Mary Segura was born on 12 June 1909 in Lafayette, Louisiana to Celestine Gutierrez and Joseph Sidney Segura. She had four brothers and sisters. She was never married and has no children. She died in 1993.

Ms. Segura graduated from Mt. Carmel High School in 1927. She then obtained a Bachelor’s Degree from Southwestern Louisiana Institute [now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette] in 1930. She earned a Master’s Degree in Library Science from Louisiana State University in 1941. She also did continuing education at Tulane University, Columbia University, the University of Illinois, and the University of Houston.

Ms. Segura was a teacher and librarian. She was also interested in music, painting and poetry. She published numerous poems. Her volume The Acadians in Fact and Fiction: A Classified Bibliography was published in 1955. She published articles in the Southwestern Louisiana Journal, Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Genealogical Institute, Louisiana History and the Attakapas Gazette. She also devoted much of her time to researching family history for various South Louisiana families. She began her career at Indian Bayou High School as a teacher-librarian in 1930. She then was a teacher-librarian at Maurice High School until 1941. In 1941 she joined the staff of Stephens Memorial Library [now Edith Garland Dupré Library] at the University of Southwestern Louisiana [now University of Louisiana at Lafayette]. She became the first librarian to head the Louisiana Room after Dupré Library was built in 1961. She worked there until her retirement in 1975. After retirement, she spent her time researching and writing in the fields of genealogy and Louisiana history.

Ms. Segura was a member of many organizations including the American Library Association, the Southwestern Library Association, College and Reference Libraries, France-Amérique de la Louisiane - Acadienne, Louisiana Historical Association, the Attakapas Historical Association, National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Daughters of the American Revolution. She was listed in the Dictionary of International Biography, Who’s Who of American Women, and Who’s Who in the South and Southwest. She was also a member of a number of honorary organizations such as Phi Kappa Phi, Delta Kappa Gamma, Kappa Kappa Rho, and Beta Phi Mu.