Mary Tinsley

Even a cursory examination of Mary Tinsley’s life reveals two interwoven and dominate threads: a striving for education and a dedication to God’s service. Whether as a learner or a teacher, Mary Tinsley always placed a great value on education and at the same time, she used her educational talents to work in God’s vineyard.

From the time they could stand on the piano stool, Mary and her five siblings provided the vocal accompaniment to their father’s sermons. Born in Hillsboro, a small, segregated Illinois town with few Black inhabitants, school and church (and not necessarily in that order) were the center of activities. To add to the family’s meager financial resources, Mary worked as a nanny for an Illinois state senator, taking care of his two daughters. When her employer offered to double her salary after high school, she knew that she wanted a better life and declined.

When she passed the civil service examination, she went to work in Washington, DC, seeking a new life. However, in this southern city, she earned not only her first salary as a clerk typist, but she also confronted the reality of the everyday racism of Jim Crow laws, e.g., being able to buy clothes, but not try them on in stores. Despite these restrictions, with hard work and dedication, she rose through the ranks of government service.

Eventually, she married and moved to Detroit. Since it was impossible to attend university part-time, she pursued career development via correspondence courses. She completed several courses of study, while raising her only child Beverly as a single parent. She was licensed as a dental hygienist, a real estate agent, and a court reporter. All of this was achieved while working full-time, being an involved mother, and working in her church.

She always encouraged her daughter to excel academically and served as the role model for many girls whom she mentored as director of the youth choir and leader of a troop of Camp Fire Girls. She constantly encouraged “her girls” to work hard and focus on their studies; she emphasized that dating and boys should be postponed to a later stage of their development! Because of her encouragement and assistance, many of these young women completed university or pursued successful careers in middle- and upper-management.

After her daughter was settled at University, she married again and moved to California, where she became even more involved both with her own educational advancement and mission education. After thirty years of government service, she retired at 55 and fulfilled her personal dream to attend university. In record time, she completed a Certificate in Pre-school Education and began a new career as a Head-start teacher. After completing her studies, she was asked to mentor and train new head-start teachers, to provide parenting skills to Black parents (whose children had been removed by court order), and to plan children’s day camps In all these roles, she found new ways to connect her love of education with her desire to serve God.

In the early 1990s, she continued her religious training with the Southern Baptist Association and became the first Black Church Missionary Consultant for Leadership Training & Development in California and throughout the US. In this role, she traveled widely to present workshops and lectures in religious leadership training. At the same time, she joined the Friendship Missionary Baptist Church and served there in various leadership roles: as a member of the Board of Trustees, the founder and inaugural Director of Children’s Church, and the founder and first President of Women’s Ministry.

Mary Tinsley loved to travel and used travel to learn about other peoples and their cultures, as well as to serve in other countries as a missionary. Her personal travel (with her twin sister or her daughter) took her to most of the 50 states and many foreign countries in Europe, South America, the Caribbean, and the Pacific Islands. In addition, she participated in People-to-People delegations to Russia and Eastern Europe, and Southern Baptist Association sent her on mission trips to Brazil, China, and Korea, where she worked with local children and women to win souls for Christ.

When asked how she would like to be remembered, she said, “I loved my church and my church family. I dedicated my life to helping others by training them to live a godly life of forgiveness, love, peace, and understanding. My affirmation is to let no one steal your joy and zest for living.”

Mary Tinsley lived a long and joyous life and left a memorable legacy in the lives of those who loved her and the many people she touched throughout her life. May she Rest in Peace.

Contributions are gratefully accepted to support:

The Mary Martin Tinsley scholarship (write this on the memo line) at:

The Neighborhood Academy, 709 N. Aiken Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15206 or

Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, 1023 S. Sultana Avenue, Ontario, CA 91716

For additional information, please contact:

Dr. Beverly Harris-Schenz

3323 Shady Avenue Extension

Pittsburgh, PA 15217

[email protected]