Lillian was born and reared in the Southernside neighborhood of Greenville. Today, Lillian and her husband live in the house they built on the site where she attended 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades – at what was then the segregated and all-black Oscar Street Elementary.

She became active in her church, canvassing for voter registration at 14 years old with the Greenville NAACP Youth, attending National Council of Negro Women meetings, and volunteering with the late City Councilwoman Lottie Gibson.

Lillian also served her Neighborhood Association, helping sign children up for free dental and other social services provided in the evenings, and babysitting and reading to them in waiting rooms.

After college, Lillian remained in Greenville and assisted her mother with making sandwiches for the food insecure in their neighborhood, eventually moving the operation into a facility from which they could serve. Lillian’s mother started this ministry because she’d always wanted to be a Christian missionary, and she instilled the importance of serving others into all of her children, including Lillian.
Lillian and her husband, Reverend JM Flemming, also passed-down this value to their 10 children (7 sons and 3 daughters), requiring them to feed the hungry on Thanksgiving and Christmas annually, before their own celebrations. Reverend Flemming cooked on every holiday and transported meals, as well as provided transportation to those without a way to get to their families on those days.