[2] Her father, a graduate of West Point military academy, was killed in 1944 while fighting in World War II, leaving her mother to raise three children.
Calmes and her two brothers all contracted polio at a young age, which served as her inspiration for going into a medical career.
[1][3] She attended Pomona College in Claremont, California, where she was encouraged to further her education instead of settling down and starting a family.
She applied to Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas and was one of three women accepted to a class of 84 students.
[1] She graduated from Baylor in 1965 and initially began an internship in pediatrics, which was the most common specialty for female physicians at the time.