Mann, Marty, 1904-

Margaret "Marty" Mann (1904-1980) was an American advertising and public relations executive and founder of the National Council on Alcoholism. Born into an upper middle class family in Chicago, Mann attended private schools, traveled extensively, and was a debutante. She married into a wealthy New Orleans family; when in her late twenties, due to financial reverses, she had to go to work, her social and family connections made it easy for her to launch a career in public relations.

Mann's "social" drinking, however, grew to the point where it endangered not only her business but her life, including at least one suicide attempt. In 1939 her psychiatrist, Dr. Harry Tiebout, gave her a manuscript of his book Alcoholics Anonymous, and persuaded her to attend her first AA meeting (at the time there were only two AA groups in the entire United States). Despite several relapses during her first year and a half, Mann succeeded in becoming sober by 1940 and, apart from a brief tumble nearly twenty years later, sober she remained for the rest of her life.

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