Remembering Peggy Joyce Whalley, M.D.
Reprinted from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Dallas Newsletter, April 1976
Peggy Joyce Whalley, M.D., was a trailblazer. She set her sights on a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Parkland Memorial Hospital, and she didn’t take “no” for an answer.
At the time, men dominated the specialty and women were not welcomed with open arms — especially women who had aspirations to join the ranks of academic medicine. Small wonder then that her initial residency request was denied with the comment that women had no place in academic medicine.
But, Dr. Whalley was both persistent and tenacious — and she was bright. Thanks to a new, young chairman, Jack A. Pritchard, M.D., she was accepted as an Ob/Gyn resident in July 1957. And, she “nailed it!”
As Dr. Pritchard wrote in an August 1959 letter, “She has been truly an outstanding resident. The future holds for her great promise either in the private practice of obstetrics and gynecology or in the academic field.”
Dr. Whalley went on to demonstrate just what “promise” she had. Her gift was one of life for high-risk pregnant women and their babies.
The late 1960s would see the rise of feminism and the women’s liberation movement. Years before that, Dr. Whalley had unassumingly blazed the trail for female physicians in academic obstetrics and gynecology. She did so quietly, as part of the team devoted to improving the care of pregnant women and their babies through what became known as “evidence-based” medicine.
Peggy Joyce Whalley was born 27 July 1926 in Dallas, Texas, to Dorothy Gertrude Booth and Cecil Ferdinand Whalley. Her parents were both from England and emigrated to the United States three years before Peggy’s birth. Nothing about her childhood would have led anyone to assume that Peggy Joyce would become a doctor. Her father, who died when Peggy was 13, had been a cotton buyer. There were no doctors in her family. Peggy would become the first.
“On a personal level, I still would have liked you to have been Chief Medical Resident and joined the Department of Medicine. Recognizing what you accomplished in your present position, I have to admit, reluctantly, that your choice was doubtless the best.”
Graduating from Highland Park High School in 1944, she attended Kilgore College, where she became a member of the 1945–1946 Kilgore Rangerettes under the direction of its founder, Gussie Nell Davis. After community college, she entered North Texas State College in Denton, earning a B.S. degree in medical technology in 1948. Money was tight for the family, and Peggy set out to work as a med tech.
But as she later told friends, she knew more about diseases than the doctors who brought her samples. So why not become a doctor? Encouraged by her chemistry professor at North Texas State, Peggy entered Southwestern Medical College in 1952. Graduating in 1956, she was one of eight women in a class of 97. If she had any regrets, it was the C– she’d received in obstetrics. Her dream of a residency in obstetrics and gynecology had been denied and now seemed unattainable.
Fortunately for Peggy, two young chairmen, who belonged to a new breed of physicians known as clinician scholars, crossed her path. The first of these was Donald W. Seldin, M.D., the new chair of internal medicine (1952–1988). Only six years older than Peggy, he had a reputation as a hard taskmaster who delivered most of the lectures and patient rounds himself. He was in a position to discover the trainees with potential, and Peggy Whalley was one.
The second was Jack A. Pritchard, M.D., who became chairman of obstetrics and gynecology in September 1955 — just 10 months before Peggy graduated. A physician–scientist, he was only three years older than Peggy and knew nothing of Peggy’s capabilities. But, based on Dr. Seldin’s recommendation and ignoring the critics, he accepted Dr. Whalley as the first female Ob/Gyn resident in July 1957.
Now, it was all up to Peggy. Serendipity had given her the opportunity, she had to deliver. And, deliver she did as the In Memoriam tribute in the Center Times shows.
Read Center Times Tribute Peggy Whalley, M.D., CV
Peggy Whalley in the News
- Peggy Whalley named recipient of professorship, News Release, Dec. 2, 1975
- Pregnancy Unit dedicated, Center Times, September 1998
- Peggy Whalley retires, Center Times, October 1988
Peggy Whalley Life in Pictures
