'Sincerely Mary'
New book highlights articles from Spectator columnist
By BENJAMIN C. SHARP bensharp@journal-spectator.com

Staff Photo by Benjamin Sharp Pat Shannon peruses the book she compiled from articles appearing in the Wharton Spectator in the 1950s.

Pat Shannon was doing some spring cleaning when she discovered the bundle of old articles. Before she knew it hours had passed - and little cleaning had been done.

"I got busy reading," Shannon said. "It's a slice of life. They are such tender stories."

The stories were written by Shannon's mother in-law, Mary Lee Shannon, decades earlier and appeared in the Wharton Spectator as part of the column, "Sincerely Mary."

Mary Lee was editor and publisher of the newspaper in the 1940s, 1950s and late 1960s, taking over after the death of her first husband, Frank Albert Shannon, in 1951.

Shannon believes the columns provide a window through which Wharton residents of today can see glimpses of how life used to be here in this area. They also afford a unique view into the perspective of a woman who, according to her daughter-in-law, was truly "ahead of her time."

So moved was Shannon by the columns that she hatched an idea: Why not compile them into a bound volume that could be enjoyed by readers of all ages and walks of life? Two years later, her dream has finally come to fruition in the pages of: Sincerely Mary: Extraordinary Wisdom From a Mid-Century Newspaper Woman.

MARY LEE SHANNON

The book is a collection of Mary Lee's columns from the 1950s, coupled with old photographs, biographical information and remembrances from such notables as Horton Foote, humorist J.C. Moody and long-time Houston Chronicle columnist Leon Hale.

Hale writes: "One of the best friends I ever had in the newspaper business [was] Mary Lee, who was editor and publisher of the Wharton Spectator. I grieve that Mary Lee never wrote the book she ought to have written about her extraordinary life."

Shannon said her mother-in-law left an indelible mark on so many lives as she took the reigns of the newspaper after the untimely death of her husband.

Although Mary Lee was forced to leave behind the life of a homemaker to enter the business world in an era when few women pursued careers, she quickly became known as a serious columnist who effectively made her readers question and ponder a host of topics and issues.

"Issue by issue, the reader was either touched by her sincere compassion or was enraged by her politics," Shannon writes in Sincerely Mary.

"In reading her story you will discover for yourself that Mary Lee Shannon was much more than just the editor of a small town paper. She was a cultured, provocative, opinionated journalist that could have held her own in any big city market.

"Mary Lee was not simply the eyes and ears recording for posterity the happenings in post-war America, she was an interpreter, the voice of reason that put the events into perspective."

The columns appearing in Sincerely Mary cover everything from current legislative happenings to features on Wharton businessmen like Joe Schwartz to emotional remembrances of Mary Lee's dog, Max, upon his death from apparently intentional poisoning.

"True, Max was just a dog, a magnificent Boxer with a satiny brown coat and lithe muscles that ripped when he jumped and ran, but he was also our beloved comrade and friend," Mary Lee writes in a column dated April 20, 1951.

"Max was a clown, he loved a joke and all but chuckled aloud when something tickled his doggy funny bone ... Why cannot those people who do not understand dogs take some other means of accomplishing their aims than the one that brings grief to their fellow man ... We pray that God will fill their hearts with mercy and human sympathy and forgive them for their cruelty, for they know not what they do."

From a column published on April 13, 1951, Mary Lee wrote:

"One of the finest things in our town is the lovely rose garden on Richmond Road that is maintained as a perpetual memorial to A.H. (Al or Pappy) Armstrong by the City of Wharton.

"It is appropriate because all of us old timers remember that Mayor Al was never seen in public without a flower on his coat and that flower was usually a rose."

This particular column of Mary Lee's will likely strike home for many modern day Whartonians considering the city's recent decision to raze the park's trees and rose bushes, which were deemed a visual nuisance and possible danger to motorists.

Reading Mary Lee's columns, it's clear she was unabashed in her opinions and personal views. In a column from Dec. 12, 1952, she writes:

"When you ask a friend or an acquaintance, 'Why don't you go to church?' you often get one of these answers: 'I don't like the preacher,' 'That hypocrite, Brother So-and-So sings in the choir,' or 'I went to the Baptist (or Methodist or whatever) church a couple of Sundays and the people weren't friendly.'

"Absurd! Utterly ridiculous. We go to church because it is the House of the Lord ... Search the scriptures as you will and you can find nowhere that God promises His children freedom from trouble.

" It doesn't matter in the least that Sister Whatsit, whom you do not admire, is sitting in the pew next to yours on Sunday morning.

"She, too, needs to bow her head in reverent supplication for forgiveness for wrongdoing, and to lift her voice in songs of thanksgiving for the many blessings God bestows on His unworthy children."

Shannon said the columns demonstrate Mary Lee wrote in a time when a person could "speak their mind clearly and without the filter of political correctness."

Mary Lee was able to say "exactly what she meant," her daughter-in-law said, and, "for this reason, her writing provoked an immediate response."

Such unbounded writing offers a clear picture of life in a bygone era, Shannon said.

Pulitzer Prize winning Wharton native Horton Foote agrees. In his introduction, he writes:

"Written with insight and compassion they help recreate a lost world, that I am sure will have special meaning for those who were a part of that world during those years."

Shannon will sign copies of Sincerely Mary: Extraordinary Wisdom From a Mid-Century Newspaper Woman from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Wharton County Historical Museum. Hardback and softback versions will be available for purchase.