Lillian Mary Pimlott, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Pimlott, Sr., was born in Trenton, New Jersey. She graduated from Immaculate Conception High School and attended New Jersey State Teachers College and the University of Pennsylvania. She was a teacher before joining the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) in March 1943.

In the fall of 1943, Pimlott worked in a recruiting office in Chicago. One year later, in October 1944, she was transferred to Washington, D.C., where she served as an administrative assistant with a committee for the standardization of naval terminology. Pimlott received orders in April 1945 to go to Pearl Harbor, but she trained enlisted WAVES in Shoemaker, California, before sailing to Hawaii. Once in Hawaii, Pimlott worked in the District Personnel Office classifying men and women and aiding them in job placement. She remained in that position until August 1946.

In August 1946, Pimlott was sent to Lakehurst, New Jersey, where she was stationed at the U.S. Naval Air Station. She volunteered to stay with the U.S. Naval Reserve until July 1947, but remained at the base in Lakehurst at least through the end of that year. It appears that Pimlott either stayed in the service or left after 1947 and then returned in the early 1950s. A collection of recruiting pamphlets and handbooks from the 1960s and early 1970s indicates that she may have worked as a recruiter or as an instructor in naval schools. In 1964, when stationed at the naval base in Newport, Rhode Island, Pimlott was appointed commander. Her date of retirement from the navy is unknown.

In the mid-1950s, Lillian Pimlott married Al Newbanks.