Lakshmi N. Menon (1897-1994) was born in Thiruvananthapuram, and is the child of Rama Varma Thampan and Madhavikutty Amma. In 1930 she married Professor V.K. Nandan Menon, who had been the vice chancellor of the University of Travancore and Patna University, as wells as the director for the Indian Institute of Public Administration.
She served in the Ministry of External Affairs as Parliamentary Secretary from 1952 to 1957, Deputy Minister from 1957 to 1962 and Minister of State to 1967. Retiring from political service in 1967, she turned to social work and also to writing, authoring among other things a book on Indian women for the Oxford Pamphlets on Indian Affairs series, published by Oxford University Press. She helped to found the Federation of University Women in India. In recognition of her services, she was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1957.