Agnese Haury (née Nelms) was born in Houston, Texas, in 1923. Educated in Fontainbleau, France; Houston, Texas; and Greenwich, Connecticut, she graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1946 with a degree in history. She soon went to work in the Publications Department of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. While there she worked closely with Alger Hiss, who became president of the Endowment in 1947. At the Endowment she wrote and edited numerous reports and articles. She became assistant editor of International Conciliation (Carnegie Endowment) and associate editor of Intercom (Foreign Policy Association). From 1954 to 1959 she traveled to Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Libya, and Burma on special assignment for the Carnegie Endowment, making three surveys of technical assistance of the United Nations and its Specialized Agencies and of bilateral national programs. She was the author of Indians of the Andes (1956); Libya, Building a Desert Economy (1957); and The Burma Road to Pyidawtha (1958), all published by the Endowment.

Agnese Nelms married Manice deForest Lockwood 3rd in 1950. The two remained married until 1976. She was married to Denver Lindley from 1978 to 1982, and to Emil W. Haury from 1990 to 1992. After her years at the Carnegie Endowment, she held a variety of positions, including editor of several United Nations publications, editor of Anthropological Papers of the University of Arizona, and work on the Snaketown Archaeological Project.

The Agnese N. Lindley Foundation was established in the late 1970s to support projects in the fields of education, scientific advancement, the arts, human and civil rights, and the environment, as well as professional training related to these fields. She asked Alger Hiss to join the Board of Trustees of the Lindley Foundation when it was founded, and the two consulted closely on Foundation affairs for a number of years. She was a benefactor of the University of Arizona, where she established the Emil Haury Graduate Fellowship program in the Department of Anthropology, the Agnese Haury Institute for Court Interpretation, the A. N. Haury Fund for dendochronological studies, and the Haury Ceramic Heritage Fund at the Arizona State Museum. The University awarded her an honorary doctorate in 1999.

From the moment that Whittaker Chambers' accusations against Alger Hiss were first made public, Agnese Nelms became a researcher for and staunch supporter of Hiss's defense team. Her efforts on Hiss's behalf continued over the next half-century and more, and included the establishment in 1981 of the Alger Hiss Distinguished Professorship at Bard College, and assistance to the National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee, The Nation Institute, and the National Security Archive.