Alma Laura (Ise) Lindley was born on June 1, 1874, the first daughter of Henry and Rose (Haag) Ise. Her parents were immigrants to the United States from Germany. Alma was born three miles northwest of the city of Downs in Osborne County, in Ross Township. She was an older sister to John Ise, author of the 1936 Kansas classic work "Sod and Stubble: The Story of a Kansas Homestead". Alma is the character "Laura" in the book. Alma graduated from the Kansas State Normal School in 1899 with an Elementary degree. She returned to the school in order to complete her Life Certificate degree which she received in 1907.

Alma began her teaching career in Frankfort, Kansas, where she was a teacher and an assistant principal in 1899. From 1900 to 1902 she taught and was assistant principal at Downs High School. During the 1902–1903 school year, she was principal at Gaylord, Kansas High School and then in 1903–1904 she returned to teach at Downs city school. From 1905 to 1907, Alma taught at Chapman, Kansas.

After teaching a few years, she went to Switzerland to do graduate work at the Polytechnic Institute in Zurich. Among her fellow students were Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) and Albert Einstein (1879–1955). During her stay in Switzerland, she traveled to Sindringen, Jagsthausen, Mundelsheim, and Klein Bottwar, former homes of her father and mother. Returning to Kansas, she taught in high schools until her marriage to Fred E. Lindley on June 23, 1909. They went to Chicago where her husband received his law degree from the University of Chicago. The couple then moved first to Oregon and later to San Diego where Fred worked as an attorney and a member of the California Legislature.

Alma's lifelong interest was her pioneer parents who settled on the Kansas plains in 1873. Throughout her life, Alma kept in touch with her brothers and sisters as well as with relatives in Germany and Australia. She spent hours during the last two years of her life dictating stories about her parents and their life on the prairie. After Alma's death, her daughter, Mary (Lindley) Wright, published the book "Prairie Legacy" in 1981 as a memorial to her mother. Alma Ise Lindley died on December 11, 1974 in San Diego, California.