Longtime Cedar Hill resident Dr. Peggy Mayfield Wilson, achieved several “firsts'' throughout her life. She became the first female to earn a Ph.D in a scientific field from the University of Texas in Austin, near where she was born and raised.

Dr. Wilson was an engineer in the early 1950s and while she was doing post-doctoral work, the Dallas-based Magnolia Petroleum Company, a predecessor of Mobil Oil, hired her to work in its laboratory. She was the first female engineer to work for the company.

Dr. Wilson also received more than 30 federal patents, including some that improved the way chemical work was done in the oil fields.

Wilson became the first female to serve on the Cedar Hill City Council. She received the 2012 Distinctive Character Lifetime Achievement Award from the City of Cedar Hill. She was Cedar Hill’s Outstanding Citizen of the Month in November 2009.