3/3/2020
In honor of National Women’s History Month, we would like to celebrate our very own, Mary Brady. Mary Brady was born in Beardstown, Ill., in 1881. She attended Lincoln Business College, after which she served as Clerk of the Nebraska Supreme Court. But in 1907 her life took a new turn. Her Uncle, Pat Walsh, had started a bank in McCook and needed her to work. She came west and never left.
She was named a director of the bank in 1917, and remained an active member of the bank family until her death in 1978. Mrs. Brady provided a quiet, but strong, conservative influence, as well as positive leadership for the bank, through the Great Depression, two World Wars, as well as the boom years following the wars.
Though she has now been gone for decades, her contributions to the bank, her church and McCook Community College continue as a fitting memorial to a grand lady, who lived her life simply and frugally, so that her community might prosper.
