Martha Jackson Ross studied history and English at Montevallo College for Women. She worked on the Manhattan Project at Oak Ridge. She met her husband, Donald Ross, there during the war. They were married at the Chapel on the Hill.
After the war, she went on to a distinguished career in oral history. She helped helped co-found the Oral History in the Middle Atlantic Region and served as President of the Oral History Association. Ross taught oral history at the University of Maryland, College Park.