Charlotte E. Maguire

Charlotte E. Maguire (September 1, 1918 – December 6, 2014) was the first woman medical doctor in Orlando, Florida, and opened the first pediatric practice run by a woman in Orlando in 1946. She was one of the founders of the University of Florida College of Medicine and the Florida State University College of Medicine. Maguire was denoted as a “Great Floridian” in a 2013 ceremony and was inducted into the Florida Women's Hall of Fame posthumously in 2015.

Early life and education Charlotte C. Edwards was born on September 1, 1918 in Indiana. Her family had relocated from Illinois because of her mother's illness and she grew up in Orlando, Florida. When her mother died, Edwards was seven years old

Edwards wanted to become a physicist and when she won a scholarship to study chemistry and physics at the University of Heidelberg, she left for Germany. In 1938, at her father's insistence, she was evacuated due to World War II and after returning to the United States attended Memphis State Teacher's College, graduating in 1940.

When she completed her teaching degree, she applied to enter medical school in Memphis, Tennessee. She was initially accepted, but three days later was dismissed and told that another student needed the place. In 1948, Edwards married a local lawyer and citrus grower, Raymer Francis Maguire Sr., who was a single father as the first woman to achieve the distinction.

Maguire worked on the clinical staff of the pediatrics department of the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, from 1980 to 1987, and then retired in 1988. In 2010, she donated $1 million to the retirement home where she had lived since 1991

In a 2012 ceremony, then Florida governor Rick Scott bestowed the title “Great Floridian” on Maguire at Florida State University College of Medicine.