Louise Spratley was born on June 24, 1910 in Vernon, BC and moved with her family to West Vancouver in the mid 1920s when she was a teenager. She began her career as an accountant but after marriage to Richard Leonard Spratley she turned to full-time motherhood.

In 1955, Spratley began to write a garden column for the Lions Gate Times and shortly thereafter also became the accountant for the newspaper. In 1959, she became editor of the paper, replacing editor Claude Hoodspith. Under her editorialship both Spratley and the Lions Gate Times won awards in 1965 and 1966. She left the Lions Gate Times in February 1967 to become editor of the BC Hotelman for one year.

From 1968 to 1974 Spratley was Special Assistant to BC Federal cabinet Minister, the Hon. Jack Davis. During this period she was highly involved in environmental issues, including the Capilano Hatchery, and Environment Canada's "Interdepartmental Task Force on National Marine Parks" in regards to the Straits of Georgia and Juan De Fuca.

Spratley's retirement years were busy with contract work, especially for the District of West Vancouver. She worked on the West Vancouver Community Plan in 1980 and was editor of the West Vancouver Municipal News (subsequently the West Vancouver Report), a newspaper that she founded. Spratley regarded 1992 as the year she truly retired. She died on April 26, 1993.