Florence Ludins-Katz was born in New York City in 1912. Her parents were Russian-speaking Jewish immigrants, part of the turn-of-the-century New York progressive intellectual community. Her mother was active in the suffrage movement, and became one of America's first woman pharmacists. Her father was a lifelong socialist, and was in the midst of converting his contracting business into a cooperative when the Depression hit. Florence's childhood was marked by alternating wealth and poverty, and ongoing heart problems resulting from an early bout of rheumatic fever. Her dreams of hobo wanderings were sidetracked by the Depession and her obligations to help support her now chronically ill father. She studied art and education at Hunter College, then earned her Masters Degree from Columbia University. In her student years she was already a prolific artist, painting with a downtown group that included her sister Sylvia, three years her senior. She was also an ardent leftist and activist in the Teachers Union. She married Elias Katz in 1939. Her career as a teacher was cut short by rheumatic heart disease, exacerbated by the birth of her only child in 1945.

In 1948 the family moved to Los Angeles, and in 1951 to the San Francisco area, where her psychologist husband was finally able to find work at the Sonoma State Home for the Mentally Retarded, as the institution was then called. Florence and her sister Sylvia opened an art store in San Rafael, and continued painting on the side. Her husband's ongoing work with the developmentally disabled caught her art teacher's eye. Then, impelled by her sister's death in 1966, Florence and Elias moved to Berkeley, and were soon caught up in the era's tumult and innovation. Inspired and supported by the burgeoning disabilites movement, they partnered in creating a series of increasingly sophisticated art-and-disabilities centers that remained their life's work until her chronic heart disease finally caught up with her in 1990. Swept along by a passion for people, art, and the outdoors, Florence remained a prolific artist throughout her life, working in mosaics, fused glass, and found materials as well as her usual acrylics, oil, and water colors. Her predominant subjects were the shores, mountains, and deserts she frequented and loved, along with a sprinkling of passionate works inspired by the civil rights and antiwar movements.