Mary Margaret Morris Boyd

is honored with a Brick from Martha Gregg.

Mary was born on September 12, 1926 in Wichita, the daughter of William L. and May Morris. She graduated from East High School in 1944, and from the University of Kansas in 1948 with a degree in Social Work. She and James R. Boyd were married on July 17, 1948 and moved to Jim's home town of Larned, Kansas where he was County Attorney and a banker, and she was on the social services staff at Larned State Hospital. Mary and Jim have three children--Tom, Mike and Martha--and six grandchildren. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 1998.

In 1967 the Boyd family moved to Wichita where Jim was a Senior Vice-President at the Fourth National Bank. Mary went back to school, taking coursework in social work from WSU, and worked at the Wichita Children's Home.

For the past 15 years she has been in the residential real estate business, continuing a long family tradition with Walter Morris & Son Real Estate. She enjoys helping and working with people, and has found working with single women and mothers especially satisfying.

The company was started by her grandfather Walter in 1888 and is the oldest real estate company in Wichita. Walter and his son William built the first shopping center in Wichita - Lincoln Heights Village at the comer of Douglas and Oliver - in 1949, and many housing additions in Wichita including Crown Heights, Lincoln Heights, and Sleepy Hollow. Mary, her sisters Eloise and Carolyn, and other members of the Morris family have created a 1 million dollar endowed chair in the Business School at WSU in their father's and grandfather's name.

Mary has always been very active in volunteer work in the community. She has served on the State Board of the American Cancer Society and as local Board President, as President of the University of Kansas Endowment Association, and on the Board of the Wichita Children's Home and the Wichita Art Museum. She is a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority and P.E.O.

Submitted by her daughter, Martha Boyd Gregg

September 14, 1998