American physician and botanist from western Tennessee, the daughter of a farmer. On the death of her first husband, Hugh Curran (1875), she moved to San Francisco and studied medicine at the University of California, but developed an interest in botany. She was coached by H.H. Behr and later appointed botanical curator for the California Academy of Sciences (1883-1893). Her second marriage (1889) was to T.S. Brandegee, a civil engineer and plant collector and they spent their honeymoon hiking from San Diego to San Francisco collecting plants. M.K. Brandegee was an expert on the Californian flora and co-founder and editor of the journal Zoë. The genus Brandegea Cogn. and over 100 western North American species commemorate the name Brandegee; her earlier name is commemorated by Lupinus layneae Eastw.