Mary has been telling stories and sharing her puppets and music with people of all ages since 1982. Since she is willing and able to tailor each program to meet the needs of each audience, laughter, delight, and discovery abound as they explore and experience stories together. Her enthusiastic, participatory style engages her listeners; they catch her dreams and stories and want to pass them on.

As a fifth grade teacher, Mary loved teaching American history. She enjoyed weaving stories and first-person interpretation into her lessons to help bring the past to life for her students. Now retired, she continues to appear in costume as a Revolutionary War woman, a Civil War woman, a 19th Century schoolmarm, and “Rosie the Riveter.”

Recipient of a Prairie Area Reading Council Literary Award, Mary values the opportunity to work with student storytellers. As an educator, she witnessed first-hand how storytelling and story listening transformed students' reading and writing. It's a wonderful, almost magical thing!

“Your entertaining style engaged the teachers as much as the students! In a matter of a few brief minutes, you evaluated your audience, developed a rapport, and tailored your presentation to make connections with the children. Your well-developed voices brought the characters to life and escorted your audience to magical places filled with positive possibilities.”
Program Manager, Park District of Franklin Park, IL

“The children loved you, your stories, and the instruments you played. You were very interactive and entertaining, two important things you need when working with young children in first grade!”
First grade teacher, White Eagle School, Aurora, IL

“When you tell stories in social studies I feel like I am there. I love it when you dress up and act like different characters. You use wonderful voices.”
Courtney, 5th grader, Clow Elementary School, Naperville, IL

“Mary, you are a supremely creative and engaging storyteller. You master the story, adopt it as your own, and invite everyone to delight in the story's magic. With your playful spirit, zany humor, and love of the absurd, you open a treasury of the imagination and welcome everyone to play along.”
Rev. Timothy Rhodes, Pastor, HOPE United Church of Christ

“One of the moms who attended Family Reading Night remarked that she loved the storyteller. She said her daughter had a friend over and retold one of your stories nearly word for word, with all of your intonations and gestures. I thought this would make your day!”
LRC Director, Prairie Point Elementary School, Oswego, IL

“Thank you for the fantastic stories you presented at Twilight Tales. All of your stories were very entertaining and related extremely well to the requested water theme. You did a great job of providing a mixture of content and form in the tales you wove.”
Visitor Programs Coordinator, The Morton Arboretum, Lisle, IL

“When you retire, you should become a professional storyteller. You ROCK at telling stories! Be sure to share your talent with everyone all over the world!”
Colleen, 5th grader, Clow Elementary School, Naperville, IL

“Thank you for presenting about World War II. I really liked your story about Rosie 'cause it told us about women and their rights and what they did to change things. It almost seemed like you were the real Rosie the Riveter. The song was cool too!”
5th grader, Ranch View School, Naperville, IL

B.A. in French and Secondary Education, Ripon College, Ripon, WI
Master of Arts in Teaching, Elementary Education, National-Louis University, Evanston, IL