Born: October 5, 1842, Vernon, New York.
Mary was the daughter of Samuel and Loriam Phinney. She married twice: to Edward P. Humphrey (1862) and Dr. Emory Stansbury (1872), who, like her, was later a trustee at Lawrence University.
She matriculated at Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin, in 1853 and graduated in 1859, the youngest graduate in Lawrence history. After graduation, she taught in Lawrence’s preparatory department for a year.
She went on to contribute poems and short stories to magazines, including Scribner’s, The Youth’s Companion, and the Cottage Hearth.
She was one of the first women trustees at Lawrence (1874–80). Stansbury Theatre in the Music-Drama Center is named after her.
Her poems include The Surprise at Ticonderoga and How He Saved St. Michael’s.
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