Margaret Dorothea Craighill was born October 16, 1898 in Southport, North Carolina. She was the daughter of Colonel William E. Craighill and Mrs. Mary (Wortley Montague Byram) Craighill. Craighill was a third generation officer following in the footsteps of her grandfather, Brigadier General William Price Craighill, and her father. Both men graduated from the United States Military Academy, commonly referred to as West Point, in West Point, New York. On May 28, 1943, she became the first woman commissioned officer in the United States Army Medical Corps. Major Craighill served through World War II and afterward worked with the Veterans Administration. She died on July 20, 1977, in Southbury, Connecticut.