Atkins, Mary, 1819-1882

Mary McAfee Atkins was born in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, on October 22, 1836. She worked as a school teacher in her hometown until 1878, when she married her old friend James Burris Atkins, a widower with no children. They settled in Kansas City, where he had lived and worked in the mill business since 1865. James Atkins made some very successful speculations in downtown real estate. When he died in 1886, he left her a sizable fortune. Mrs. Atkins was in deep mourning for a year. Friends like Sarah Jenkins and Elizabeth Salmon Jacquemot, James Atkins' niece, helped her to gradually overcome her grief. She visited Europe for the first time in 1902 and developed an appreciation for art. This appreciation, coupled with a desire to improve the community, led her to set aside a portion of her estate to purchase land and erect a building to be used as a museum of fine arts. She died on October 13, 1911.