Gladys Delores Nichols was born at Caney Creek in south Walton County on May 26, 1924. She was the daughter of Lonnie and Lillie Mae Anderson Nichols. She married a high school classmate, Huey Milton, and had seven children.
Gladys Milton was licensed to practice midwifery in 1959 after the Walton County Health Department sponsored her training with two doctors in Florala, Alabama. She safely delivered at least 2,000 babies during her lifetime. Most of the deliveries were in rural black households that had no access to medical care and in the Milton Memorial Birthing Clinic in Flowersview.
Gladys Milton became known nationally in the late 1970s as an advocate for midwives being recognized as legitimate medical practitioners. In 1992, she was given the Sage Femme, the highest award of the Midwives Alliance of North America, and she was inducted into the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame in 1994.
Memoirs: Why Not Me? (1993) and Beyond the Storm (1997).