May Owen, M.D. committed to a career in medicine at the age of nine when she discovered her true passion was helping others. Her first patients were animals on her family’s farm in Falls County, Texas. While she attended high school in Fort Worth, Texas, she remained committed to helping her father on the farm every weekend and still graduated at the top of her class. The first woman to enroll in Louisville Medical College in Kentucky, she earned her medical degree in 1921, and continued studies at Mayo Clinic and Bellevue Hospital in New York City. Dr. Owen contributed to the world of veterinary medicine by assisting with the development of a rabies vaccine and the discovery of diabetes in sheep when fed molasses cake. Her greatest contribution to the field of pathology was discovering the danger of surgical glove powder.
