Martha Harrison Davis was born on September 11, 1912, in Goldsboro, North Carolina. She was a twin, but the brother William died in infancy. Davis graduated from Goldsboro High School in 1928 and began attending Salem College in Winston-Salem. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts with a teaching certificate, she spent two years teaching in Mount Olive.

Davis returned to school in New York City to earn a degree in library science and stayed to work as a library liaison for a public library and a Yorkville neighborhood school. She returned to her home state to work at Fort Bragg as their librarian, serving with the military the remaining two years of the war.

She was chosen amongst nine other individuals to begin work overseas. First, in London indexing, reading, and creating catalogue cards relating to questions and answers from the Nuremburg trials. After this was completed, she was sent to Belgium to work with the 13th port in Antwerp and was responsible for establishing nine libraries for troops awaiting transport back to the states.

Once home, she began work as a school librarian in Tenafly, NJ, and later joining the staff of the New Jersey State Library. While in New Jersey, she met and married Dr. Edward Twining Schofield who worked as a library administrator for the Newark School system. Dr. Schofield was offered a job with the University of Hawaii to establish a school library and the couple lived there for 10 years. Also, the couple traveled extensively in the Pacific region.

The couple eventually settled in Chapel Hill, NC, and lived together until the death of Dr. Schofield in 2000. The couple did not have any children. Martha passed away on 17 November 2007 in Chapel Hill.