Mary Boyce Temple
| Mary Boyce Temple | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
July 6, 1856 Knoxville, Tennessee, United States |
| Died | May 16, 1929 (aged 72) Knoxville, Tennessee |
| Resting place |
Old Gray Cemetery Knoxville, Tennessee |
| Alma mater | Vassar College |
| Notable work | Sketch of Margaret Fuller Ossoli (1886), Notable Men of Tennessee (editor) (1912) |
| Parent(s) | Oliver Perry Temple and Scotia Caledonia Hume |
Mary Boyce Temple (July 6, 1856 – May 16, 1929) was an American philanthropist and socialite, active primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She was the first president of the Ossoli Circle, the oldest federated women's club in the South, and published a biography of the club's namesake, Margaret Fuller Ossoli, in 1886. She also cofounded the Tennessee Woman's Press and Author's Club, the Knoxville Writer's Club, and the Knox County chapter of the League of Women Voters. She represented Tennessee at various international events, including the Paris Exposition of 1900 and at the dedication of the Panama Canal in 1903.
Temple was the founder and long-time regent of the Bonny Kate Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and helped launch Knoxville's preservationist movement with her efforts to save Blount Mansion in the 1920s. In her later years, she donated tens of thousands of dollars to the University of Tennessee for agricultural research, and left the bulk of her estate to the university after her death.
Temple was born in Knoxville in 1856, the only child of Oliver Perry Temple (1820–1907) and Scotia Caledonia Hume. Her father was a powerful Knoxville attorney who, at one point after the Civil War, had the highest personal income in Knox County. During Temple's early years, her parents' home, Melrose, was a center of the city's social life, where guests such as Governor William G. Brownlow, presidential candidate John Bell, and Civil War generals John G. Foster and Ulysses S. Grant were entertained.
Temple attended Vassar College, graduating with a bachelor of arts in 1877. She spent several years travelling with her ailing mother in search of healthier climates. The two spent time in Europe and the Catskills.
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