Mary Allen Jolley

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Mary Pearson Allen Jolley (born August 30, 1928 in Kinterbish, Sumter County; died December 1, 2023 in Tuscaloosa) was director of economic and community affairs for the University of Alabama and a founder of the program now known as the Alabama Network of Family Resource Centers.

Mary was the daughter of Charles and Henrietta Pearson Allen of Sumter County. She attended Ward School. When her older brother Walter (nicknamed "But") enlisted in the U.S. Navy during World War II, she took the initiative to present herself at the courthouse in Livingston to apply for a driver's license and became her school's bus driver. After graduating she earned a bachelor's degree in education at the University of Alabama, and was hired as a music and physical education teacher at the Frisco City School in Monroe County and took a room in the community's teacherage.

Soon, Jolley was diagnosed with tuberculosis. She was admitted to a sanitarium for treatment. Her treatment included the novel use of streptomycin, which cured her of the disease. Her expectation to return to teaching, however, was impeded by the refusal of her fellow teachers to admit her back into the teacherage. Instead she found a job working as an assistant to newly-elected U.S. Representative Carl Elliott, initially working on constituent services from an office in the Jasper Federal Building.

Jolley later joined Elliott in Washington D.C. as an administrative assistant, and served as chief clerk to the House Committee on Education and Labor, and the Subcommittee on Special Education. She is credited with efforts to insure that low-cost education loans were included as part of the National Defense Education Act of 1958. In 1961 President John Kennedy appointed her to a panel on vocational education which drafted several amendments to the Vocational Education Act of 1963. She later took a job with the American Vocational Association as its associate executive director for governmental relations.

In 1972 Mary Allen was married to Homer Richard "Dick" Jolley, a former Jesuit priest and president of Loyola University in New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1973 she became director of public affairs for the American Home Economics Association.

In 1977 Jolley left Washington to become vice president for development for Trident Technical College in Charleston, South Carolina. She helped that college develop programs for adults seeking retraining and for women entering "non-traditional" careers in match and science. She was honored for her work there by the YWCA of Greater Charleston and the United Way of America, and was inducted into the Order of the Palmetto by Governor Richard Riley.

Jolley returned to Alabama in 1984 as director of economic and community affairs for the University of Alabama. In that role she consulted with numerous agencies and non-profits on matters relating to economic opportunities for all Alabamians. She helped to revitalize the Coleman Center arts program in York, and was credited by University of Alabama System chancellor Malcolm Portera with laying out a strategy for recruiting automobile manufacturing to the state. University president Joab Thomas appointed Jolley to his council on minority affairs. She served on a planning committee for the Tuscaloosa Civil Rights Trail. She and attorney Julian Butler nominated Carl Elliott for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum's first "Profile in Courage Award" in 1991 which led to the publication of his memoir, The Conscience of a Congressman. Jolley retired from the University in 1994.

Shortly after her retirement, Governor Jim Folsom Jr appointed Jolley to serve as acting director of the Governor's Office of Alabama Children and Families. It was in that role that she initiated the community-based resource centers now operating as the Alabama Network of Family Resource Centers.

Jolley served on the boards of the Alabama Civil Justice Foundation and served as a lead consultant to Dan Liss and Josh Carpenter on the "Bama Covered" campaign to promote public enrollment in the Affordable Care Act. Late in life she wrote a memoir entitled Accidental Activist, due to be published by the Livingston Press in June 2024.

Jolley died in December 2023. Her funeral mass was celebrated at St Francis Catholic Church in Tuscaloosa.

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