Hemingway was born Nov. 12, 1920, in Brooklyn, N.Y. She and her family moved frequently during her childhood. Her step-father was Herbert Sidney Jones, known in Litchfield as Capt. Jones, who helped establish the Litchfield Historic District in 1959. She attended the Oxford School in West Hartford and graduated from Finch Junior College in New York City, where she became interested in decorative art and design. She married Buell T. Heminway of Watertown during World War II when both were naval officers. Mrs. Heminway served with the rank of ensign in the Naval Communications Intelligence Organization, assisting in decryption of Japanese Navy codes. For her wartime work, she was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation. After the war, she began working part-time as a wallpaper and fabric designer, working from home in Litchfield during the early 1950s. She also become involved in local civic affairs at this time. In the late 1950s, the Heminway family moved to Detroit. Following her divorce, she moved to Washington, D.C. and started a corporate interiors firm. In the late 1960s, she joined a New York firm as senior interior decorator. She also volunteered with the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  She moved to Litchfield in 1971 following the death of her mother. In addition to her work decorating homes in Litchfield, she was crucial in the formation of the Litchfield Historic District Advisory Commission, serving for many years as its chairman. The Commission reviews exterior alterations to buildings in the Litchfield Historic District and her tenure saw the legitimization of the Commission as an active participant in town government. She was also instrumental in gaining the nomination of the Litchfield Historic District to the National Register of Historic Places. She was president of the Litchfield Garden Club and recipient of its Historic Preservation Award for Zone II; consultant to the Litchfield Historical Society for the Tapping Reeve historic site and chair of its Tapping Reeve Committee; adviser to The Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation; liaison to the Connecticut Historical Commission from the Connecticut Association of Historic District Commissioners; a director of Connecticut Preservation Action; consultant to The Bellamy-Ferriday House & Garden in Bethlehem and a property of the  Antiquarian and Landmarks Society, of which she was a member. She was also an honorary trustee of the Litchfield Historical Society and chair of its Collections Committee. Heminway's work was publicly recognized in 2006 when she received the Janet P. Jainschigg Award for Excellence and Professionalism in Historic Preservation from the Connecticut Trust. She died on July 3, 2006.

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