Mary Lee Dayton

Community leader, philanthropist, and supporter of women's issues. She was predeceased by her husband of fifty-four years, Wallace C. Dayton, who died in 2002. Born in Marshall, Missouri, on May 12, 1925, she was the daughter of Braddie Douglass Lowe and the Reverend Arnold Hilmar Lowe. She attended John Borroughs School in St. Louis, and graduated from Northrop Collegiate School in Minneapolis in 1943 and from Vassar College in 1946. She served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Macalester College, The Minneapolis Foundation, The Minneapolis YWCA, and Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, and was a founder of the Minnesota Women's Fund, now the Women's Foundation of Minnesota. She also served as a Board member of the Breck School, the Mississippi River Fund, the Ripley Memorial Foundation, the Sister Kenny Foundation, the Greater Twin Cities United Way, the University of Minnesota Arboretum Foundation, Vassar College, Westminster Presbyterian Church, and other organizations. She is survived by her four daughters, Sally D. Clement (Stephen) of New York City, Katherine D. Nielsen (Stuart) and Ellen D. Grace, both of Minneapolis, and Elizabeth D. Dovydenas (Jonas) of Lenox, MA, and nine grandchildren: Theodore and Winston Clement; John and Elena Dovydenas; Olivia Nielsen; Samuel Richardson; and Matthew, Katherine, and Rosamond Sturgis.