A Useful Life

"A Ring-Side Seat to Medical Developments in the Second Half of the 20th Century." --- Dr. Jeanne Montgomery Smith records details and arcs of medicine from a learned and engaging perspective. A Useful Life chronicles her past and present family’s personal journeys as well. Her great-aunt, Dr. Elizabeth Sargent, was instrumental in opening the early hospital for women and children in San Francisco. Her great-grandfather was Senator Aaron A. Sargent who wrote the first bill for women’s suffrage with Susan B. Anthony in the 1870s and presented it in the U.S. Senate four decades before it was ratified. Those two ancestors highlight women’s growth in political and professional viability, while Dr. Smith’s career in medical practice and research spans years of unparalleled change.