Audrey Emmons was born Audrey Jean Durland on November 4, 1921, in Manhattan, Kansas. She received her B.S. in Architecture degree from Kansas State University in 1943. She served as a Junior Naval Architect at the Department of the Navy in Washington, D.C., from 1943 to 1944, and as a draftsperson with the firms of William Smull, AIA, in Washington, D.C., from 1948 to 1949, and Bechtel Corporation in San Francisco, California, from 1949 to 1950.

Emmons was an architect with several firms in San Francisco, including Wurster, Bernardi & Emmons AIA, from 1950 to 1955, and Malone & Hooper, AIA, from 1955 to 1963. In 1964 she became a partner with Hooper Olmsted & Emmons, AIA, (1964-1977) and Hooper, Olmsted Emmons Hrovat, AIA, (1977-1980). She established her own practice in 1980. In 1961 she married architect Donn Emmons.

Emmons served in many capacities on several committees and task forces in the San Francisco Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and the California Council AIA. She was a member of the City of Sausalito Community Appearances Advisory Board (1971-1974) and the Architectural Selection Board of the State Colleges of California (1977-1980), among other prominent civic and professional committees.

Emmons, a licensed architect of California and the District of Columbia, was elected to the College of Fellows of the AIA in 1984. In 1983 she received a Distinguished Service Award from the College of Architecture and Design of Kansas State University. She died April 1, 1997, in Sausalito, California.