Mary Owen

Mary Owen (née Evans), OAM (8 February 1921 - 23 March 2017) was an Australian feminist, unionist, and activist. Personal and early life Owen was born in Balwyn, Victoria in 1921 to Tyrrell and Mary Evans (née Withers), granddaughter to Walter Withers, a landscape painter and member of the Heidelberg School. Her mother died when she was just sixteen months old, following the birth of her twin sisters. Owen's godmother, her mother's sister Margery, taught her how to sew. Her father remarried and had three more children, making Owen the eldest of five. She attended girls' schools Korowa and Lauriston. She left school at fifteen and worked as a typist, a clerk, and an editor. Owen married Richard (Dick) Owen in 1942 at twenty-one years old. She had her first child Rosemary in 1947, followed by Wendy in 1950, and David in 1953. By 1967 she had separated from her husband, and was granted divorce in 1973.