University of Virginia Library

MARY VANCE HUMPHREY

Mary Vance Humphrey of Junction City, Kansas, has written a series of short stories on the property rights of women in Kansas, a subject that was and is, still, of vital importance to the women of the state. "The Legal Status of Mrs. O'Rourke'' and "King Lear in Kansas'' are two of the series.

When young in heart and experience, Mrs. Humphrey wrote a number of poems. Her work in later years has been only prose. Her novel, "The Squatter Sovereign'' is an historical romance of pioneer days, the settlement of Kansas in the fifties.

Mrs. Humphrey is one of the founders of the Kansas State Social Science Club and the Woman's Kansas Day Club and the founder of the Reading Club of Junction City. She has served as President of the State Federation and as Director of the General Federation of Women's Clubs and President of the Woman's Kansas Day Club. Her work as member of the Board of Education has done much for Junction City and her interest in libraries has done equally as much for the State of Kansas.

Of her record as an official, Margaret Hill McCarter has written: "Her whole soul is in her work. She is the genuine metal, shirking nothing, cheapening nothing, and withal happy

in the enjoyment of her obligation. She stands for patriotism, progress and peace. Something of the message of the shepherds heard out beyond Bethlehem that Christmas morning long ago sounds in the chords she strikes.''

As the wife of the late Judge James Humphrey, she proved herself the able companion of such a worthy man.