Born in Jelgava, Latvia. Emigrated to Chicago in 1950. Scholarship recipient to the Art Institute of Chicago. Graduated with a Fine Arts degree in 1959. In 1960 the Latvian Community Center organized her first exhibit. Since then Lelde has had more than thirty independent exhibits. Her work has been shown by several galleries in Chicago and Florida. Lelde has also taken part in numerous group shows, and exhibits. Her work is in collections in the United States, Canada, Latvia and other cities in Europe.
     Her style is impressionistic, sometimes quite abstract. Her colors are very strong, applied with a palette knife. She paints mostly in oil, but is experimenting in mixed media and watercolor. Her landscape is a celebration of nature, an explosion of color and texture. Lelde also paints portraits.