Mary Adeliene McGlothlin of Bedford, Virginia was born in 1916 to Cecil Horace and Henrietta Yates McGlothlin. In 1934, she enrolled as a student at State Techers College in Farmville, Virginia and earned her bachelor's degree in 1938. While a student at State Teachers College, McGlothlin served as Sophomore, Junior, and Senior Class President, was captain of the field hockey team, was on the staff at the Rotunda (student newspaper), and was on the May Court. Additionally, she was a member of Kappa Delta Pi, Alpha Kappa Gamma, Pi Gamma Mu, Delta Theta Alpha, Beorc Eh Thorn, the Cotillion Club, the Dramatic Club, Le Cercle Francais, and the volleyball team. In 1944, she married Oswald Beechwood Watson, Jr., a Lieutenant in the U.S. Naval Reserve and later automobile dealer from Bedford, Virginia.