Mary Love Cornish was born in New York in 1916. Her parents, Charles Waldo Love and Orilla Alice Wiley were from Colorado, but moved to New York because of Mr. Cornish's career. During the Great Depression Charles Waldo Love (her father) lost employment as a commercial artist and the family returned to Jarre Canyon, Colorado. The WPA (Works Progress Administration) sent Mr. Love to work at the Colorado History Museum.
Mary Cornish began her working life as a chorus girl for Lakeside Amusement Park [Denver], this began her career in vaudeville. She met her husband, Ronald Cornish, while working in Casper, Wyoming. He was also in vaudeville. The couple moved around quite a bit while Mr. Cornish was in the Navy during WWII, but eventually returned to Colorado, where Mary Cornish began to take art classes. She became involved in the Douglas County Arts and Crafts Guild, and the Arts and Humanities Council, and created pictures of one-room school houses for the Arts and Humanities Council, as well as scenes of Douglas County for the Arts and Crafts Guild.
Ms. Cornish's interest in one room school houses, and her research and paintings of them, became the basis for her involvement in both the Country School Legacy Project and in the Douglas County School History Project. She was involved with the Indian Park Schoolhouse Association, which fought to save the school and turn it into a community center. The Indian Park Schoolhouse in Sedalia, Colorado, was added to the Colorado Statewide Inventory of Historic Sites in 1976 and the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
From the guide to the Mary Cornish Papers, 1974-1991, (Douglas County Libraries / 100 S. Wilcox St. / Castle Rock, CO 80104 / Phone: 303-688-7730)
