Women’s History Month: Mary Moody Northen’s Legacy

Born in February 1892, Mary was the oldest of four siblings. “She was considered the most delicate. She did not go to formal schooling beyond the 7th grade. After that she had a governess and was homeschooled. She was shy,” says Betty Massey, the Executive Director of Mary Moody Northen Endowment. Despite Mary’s more subdued nature, she was smart, observant, and thoughtful. She began embracing the family’s entrepreneurial spirit in her preteens when, with the help of her grandfather Colonel William Lewis Moody, she formed The Great American Chicken Company where she ordered chickens and delivered eggs in the neighborhood.

In her early 20s, Mary married Edwin Clyde Northen and moved into a home a few blocks west of the Moody Mansion. “She was a conventional wife of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, but along the way her father was teaching her about business,” says Massey. Mary’s father, W.L. Moody, Jr., was a savvy businessman who worked in banking, insurance, and hotels just to name a few. The business acumen Mary gained came to use in 1954 when two tragedies shifted her world: the passing of her husband and her father a few weeks later. Suddenly, Mary was in charge of 50 companies. “The greatest monument we can build to my father is to see his organizations prosper,” said Mary after her father’s passing, and she stayed true to that promise.

Mary was the first person to chair the Moody Foundation and under her leadership, she gave funds to help with historic preservation, education, and the arts in Galveston. For example, Galveston landmarks like The Strand Historic District and the 1877 Tall Ship ELISSA would not be such a big part of the island without Mary’s financial contributions. “I think she got the big picture of Galveston. When you put the pieces together of what the foundation was funding under Mary’s leadership, it was about bringing together Galveston history. She moved the needle,” says Massey.