Mary O'Hara - (1885-1980)
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Campbell County High School, Gillette, Wyoming
I. Biography
Mary O'Hara was born on July l0, 1885, in Cape May Point, New Jersey. She was the third child of four born to the Reverend Dr. Reese Fell Alsop, an Episcopal clergyman, and of Mary Lee Spring.
Mary O'Hara grew up in Brooklyn Heights, New York. In 1905 she married Kent Kane Parrot and moved to California where she became a screenwriter during the silent film era. Her second marriage to Heige Sture-Vasa, in 1922, brought her to Wyoming, and there she wrote the three classics about the range country: My Friend Flicka, Thunderhead and Green Grass of Wyoming.
A year after her divorce in 1947, Mary O'Hara returned to the east and made her home in Monroe, Connecticut. In 1968, she settled in Chevy Chase, Maryland where she resided until her death on October 14, 1980.
II. Professional Life
Mary O'Hara was also a gifted pianist and composer. Her great love for the piano also inspired her to compose many pieces for that instrument including, "Esperan," "Green Grass of Wyoming," "May God Keep You," and "Wind Harp."
III. Regional Influences
In 1922 after moving to Wyoming, she began to write many books about the range country including Green Grass of Wyoming, My Friend Flicka, and Thunderhead. Wyoming and its surrounding plains were the basis of some of Mary O'Hara's best writings.
IV. Literary Works
My Friend Flicka (1941)
Thunderhead (1943)
Green Grass of Wyoming (I 946)
The Son of Adam Wyngate (1952)
Novel-in-the-Making "autobiographical" (1954)
Wyoming Summer (I 963)
The Catch Colt (drama)
This essay was submitted by a student of Nathel Coca, a teacher at Campbell County High School in Gillette, Wyoming.