The modern FMQ revolution started with Harriet Hargrave. She experimented all on her own, using her domestic Bernina sewing machine. Took a finished quilt to her quilt guild's show-and-tell. Someone commented that all that intricate hand quilting must have taken a long time to do. When Harriet said she had finished the quilt in a week with machine quilting, everyone got excited. I think one of the exciting things about HH is that she used nylon monofilament thread and intricate quilting (feathers, etc.) so that from a slight distance you couldn't tell at all that it was machine quilting.
Prior to HH, there was a man who made machine quilting of straight lines very popular. He died quite awhile ago, although I'm sure I could go into some of my vintage magazines and find articles about him. He was an engineer, I think, and demonstrated how to quilt in straight lines without stopping and starting.