Frances Daisy Emery was born September 5, 1876, in Kaufman County, Texas, to James Wallace and Elizabeth Brown Emery. James Wallace Emery had a master's degree from Bowdoin College and had been an outspoken abolitionist in the 1850s.[1] The ninth of twelve children, four-year-old Daisy announced her intentions to become a doctor, a goal encouraged by her parents.