Conner was born in Victoria, Texas, and grew up in Austin.^[1] Early on, she decided she wanted to be a doctor.^[2] Conner's father was a physician and as a young woman, she and her sister Joyce Yerwood spent time with her father on the job.^[3] In 1925, she graduated from Samuel Huston College.^[1] Then Conner graduated cum laude from Meharry Medical College in 1933.^[3] Conner's residency was in pediatrics, but she eventually became more interested in public health and so went back to school on scholarship to study at the University of Michigan.^[2]

Conner became the first black woman to work for the Texas Department of Health in 1937.^[4] She was involved in training midwives in East Texas and set up wellness clinics in rural Texas.^[2] Conner was passed over for promotions regularly until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed.^[4] She was the first black woman director of the Maternal and Child Health in Texas.^[5] By the time she retired in 1977, she had been promoted to the director of health services in Texas.^[2]

Conner died on June 11, 1991, in Austin.^[1] She is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Austin, Texas.^[3]

Biography

References