Background
She was born in Wilmington, Delaware.
She was born in Wilmington, Delaware.
She later founded the Lick Observatory Archives located in the Dean East. McHenry Library. In 1982, her monument at Lick was renamed the Mary Lea Shane Archives of Lick Observatory. During childhood, Heger"s family moved west to Belvedere on the San Francisco Bay, where she spent her youth.
Heger received her bachelor"s degree in 1919 from the University of California, Berkeley, becoming a graduate student in astronomy.
After marrying C. Donald Shane in 1920 she completed her Doctor of Philosophy in 1924, writing a thesis under the supervision of West. West. Campbell at Lick Observatory that was one of the first papers to recognize the sharp, stationary Na I absorption lines in the spectra of distant binaries as interstellar in origin. She was also the discoverer of the diffuse interstellar bands.
Deciding to focus on raising her two small children, Heger gave up the notion of a professional career. Mary Lea Shane died on her 86th birthday of a heart attack at her home in Scotts Valley, California on July 13, 1983.