Physician Maggie Ballard was born on April 9, 1900, at Greenville in Monroe County, where her father was postmaster and owned a general store.
She attended school in Greenville and at the Alleghany Collegiate Institution in Alderson. After receiving her undergraduate degree from WVU, she became one of the first women to earn a medical degree from the University of Maryland. For the next four decades, she was a physician in Baltimore, specializing in obstetrics and gynecology, and served on the faculty of the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
After retiring in the 1960s, Dr. Maggie, as she was affectionately known, returned to Monroe County and pursued her lifelong interests in genealogy and local history. She was an avid collector, wrote books and newspaper articles, and was a founder of the Monroe County Historical Society. For years, she also set up at the Mountain State Art and Craft Fair at Cedar Lakes, selling her homemade lye soap.
Dr. Maggie Ballard died in 1976 at age 76. Her collection of historical material is now housed at the West Virginia and Regional History Center at WVU.