Background
Mary Garrett Hay was born on August 29, 1857, in Charlestown, Indiana, United States, the daughter of Andrew Jennings and Rebecca (Garrett) Hay.
Mary Garrett Hay was born on August 29, 1857, in Charlestown, Indiana, United States, the daughter of Andrew Jennings and Rebecca (Garrett) Hay.
Mary Hay attended Western College for Women at Oxford, Ohio, in 1873-1874, but did not graduate.
At an early age Mary Hay began attending political meetings with her father and developed an interest in public affairs which she retained throughout her life. The first organization to absorb her interest was the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, of which she became a state officer. Through the contacts made in this work she became interested in the woman’s suffrage movement. First a local and then a state officer, she soon became affiliated with the national suffrage association which she served as an organizer, campaigning in many states.
Hay was appointed chairman of the Republican Women’s National Executive Committee and held that office during the two years of the committee’s existence. When the vote was won she saw the need of training women to exercise the franchise and took an active part in the work of the New York City League of Women Voters. A born leader, she held a long list of offices in a variety of organizations, over twenty of which were represented at memorial services held for her in New York City after her death. She assisted in organizing the first Conference on the Cause and Cure of War, held in Washington in 1926, and took an active part in the succeeding conferences in 1927 and 1928, but the last three years of her life were devoted chiefly to the subject of her first interest, prohibition.
At the time of Hay's death she was engaged on plans for a dry ticket for the New York Women’s Committee for Law Enforcement of which she was chairman. To her, right and wrong were clearly defined and she worked indefatigably for the cause she felt to be right, accepting no compromises. Her death came suddenly on her seventy-first birthday, in New Rochelle, New York, where she had long made her home.
Mary Hay assisted in organizing the New York City Woman’s Suffrage party and it was under her leadership that suffrage was won in New York state in 1917 through the city’s vote. New York was the first large city to adopt woman’s suffrage and the victory was largely due to Miss Hay’s courage, energy, and executive ability.
