Lena Barnes was born to Frank and Jennie Barnes in Groveland, Massachusetts in 1882. She married her first husband, Charles E. Crossman in 1901, but that marriage did not last. She married Harland A. Jefts in 1910 in Greenfield, Massachusetts. She and Harland lived in Connecticut in 1923 where he worked as a foreman. Lena worked as a corporate trainer, teaching sales to the junior staff. They opened their own Spiritualist church in Boston after that and met Ethel Post in 1926.
Ethel Post opened her church, Spiritualist Temple of Truth and its school, in the fall of 1928 in Miami. The church school had four staff members, which included Lena. Lena taught Philosophy and Comparative Religions. She also worked with Ethel in the afternoons, giving private readings. From 1929 onwards, Lena traveled with Edith Post as she demonstrated her mediumship skills throughout the northeastern United States. In 1930, they visited Canada as well.
As the school prospered, Lena took over the financial and managerial positions for the church and later at Camp Silver Belle in Ephrata, PA. After 1935, she was also a stockholder in in the Mountain Springs Hotel. The Jefts were living at the hotel and Harland is listed as a Yacht captain in the 1940 census. Lena published several booklets under several pseudonyms including Peggy Barns and Lena Barns. These included, Lo, I am With You Always, Self Realization, Psychic Facts, and A Way of Life and Fundamentals of Spiritualism.
In 1950, Lena and Harland lived with Ethel and her new husband, James Parrish, in Miami, Florida over the winter. Lena worked as teacher, lecturer, and writer. She was treasurer for the camp and on the board of directors, and Vice President for the hotel. She died in Ephrata in 1963. Harland died three years later in Brattleboro, Vermont.