Her father, Spencer Emil Kerkow, a Kentucky state amateur golf champion, died from an infection following wisdom teeth extraction when she was barely a year old.

On August 6, 1993, Daughtrey was nominated by President Bill Clinton to a new seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, created by 104 Stat.

[3] On November 6, 2014, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in DeBoer v. Snyder, upholding same-sex marriage bans in four states in which Daughtrey dissented.

Daughtrey wrote: Because the correct result is so obvious, one is tempted to speculate that the majority has purposefully taken the contrary position to create the circuit split regarding the legality of same-sex marriage that could prompt a grant of certiorari by the Supreme Court and an end to the uncertainty of status and the interstate chaos that the current discrepancy in state laws threatens.

[4][5][6][7]The United States Supreme Court later granted writ of certiorari to the case to review same-sex marriage bans when it previously declined to do so.