An only child, Mary was born in Worchester, MA on September 22, 1914. She grew up in Providence, RI and attended Pembroke College until hard times befell her family, and she had to drop out before her senior year. During WWII, she moved to Washington, DC, where she went to work as a punch key operator for the National Association of Railroads. Soon she met and married a handsome saxophone player, George Fay. The couple moved to Takoma Park, at first in an apartment on Sherman Avenue, then in a rented house on 6757 Eastern Avenue, before finally purchasing a home at 8 Grant Avenue. She loved to play the piano, and there was always an old upright piano in the house. When her children were almost grown, she began to buy and sell antiques.
She was the "master mind" behind the Antique Centers in Bethesda, MD and Newport, RI. She died in Burlington, Massachusetts (from complications arising from an operation to repair an aortic aneurism) on August 3, 1984 at the age of 69.