Zatae Longsdorff was born on April 16, 1866, the second of six children of William Henry and Lydia R. Haverstick Longsdorff of Centerville, Pennsylvania, a few miles southwest of Carlisle.  William Henry, a physician, was a Dickinson graduate of the class of 1856.  Zatae’s brother, Harold, graduated from the College in 1879.  Zatae continued the family tradition by graduating with the class of 1887, becoming the first female graduate of the College.  She obtained a master's degree in cursu from Dickinson in 1890.  Sisters Hildegarde (class of 1888), Jessica (class of 1891), and Persis (class of 1894) all attended Dickinson in turn.

After graduation, Zatae pursued medical instruction at Women’s Medical College in Philadelphia, earning her degree in 1890.  She served a year as an intern at the New England Hospital for Women and Children, and then relocated to a Native American reservation in Blackfoot, Idaho where she became the resident physician for a short time.

A. Gale Straw and Zatae Longsdorf were married November 12, 1891, shortly after Zatae returned to the East.  The couple had four children, and Zatae later resumed her medical practice at Elliot Hospital in Manchester, New Hampshire.  A. Gale Straw died in 1926 after a long illness following his surgical service in the First World War.

In 1924, Zatae won a seat in the New Hampshire State Legislature, going on to chair the House Committee on Public Health.  She was chosen to preside over the Republican Party Convention in New Hampshire in 1926, making her the first woman in the United States to hold such a position.  A later attempt to win a seat in the New Hampshire State Senate failed, but Zatae nonetheless continued to be politically active.  She ultimately became the first woman president of the American Medical Society.  For a lifetime of accomplishments, Zatae was awarded an honorary doctor of science degree by her alma mater in 1937, the 50th anniversary of her graduation from the College.

Zatae Longsdorff Straw died on October 1, 1955 at her home in Manchester.