Partner Gail Laughlin
Queer Places:
2100 Pacific Ave, San Francisco, CA 94115, USA
Brooklawn Memorial Park, 2002 Congress St, Portland, ME 04102, United States
Dr. Mary Austin Sperry (August 4, 1863 – May 7, 1919) was born in Stockton, California, on August 4, 1863, as the daughter of Austin
Sperry, the founder of the Sperry Flour Company, and Mary Simpson (later Mary Elizabeth Simpson Sperry), coming from a prominent family in the city. She
grew up alongside her three siblings: Beda Simpson Sperry Bodwell (1865–1953), Horace Benjamin Sperry (1868–1940), and Austin Sperry (1872–1955).
Pursuing an advanced professional education, Mary Austin earned her medical degree from the Women’s Medical College in Pennsylvania before studying obstetrics in Europe. Following her studies, she worked at the New England Hospital in Boston and later relocated to San Francisco, where she established a respected medical career. She worked as an obstetrical surgeon at the San Francisco Children’s Hospital and maintained active memberships in the Society of Women Physicians, the Collegiate Alumnae of California, and the San Francisco Center Civic League. In addition to her regular hospital work, she volunteered her services to women at the Florence Crittenton Home in Denver.
Her personal and professional life became deeply connected to the American woman suffrage movement after she met attorney Gail Laughlin in 1903 when they both worked on the campaign for women’s suffrage in California. Laughlin, working as a National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA) organizer, collaborated closely with Sperry’s mother, who served as the President of the California Woman Suffrage Association. Mother Sperry strongly disapproved of the close relationship that blossomed between Laughlin and her daughter.
Seeking independence and a progressive environment, Mary and Laughlin moved to Denver, Colorado, in 1907. There, Laughlin opened a law office and Sperry operated a private medical practice. They became well-known in social circles, recognized as a committed women's couple sharing their lives in what is often referred to as a Boston marriage.
They eventually moved back to San Francisco in 1914, residing in the Sperry family home on Pacific Street while continuing their dedicated activism. During this period, Dr. Sperry served as treasurer and Laughlin as chairman of the California Branch of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage (CUWS), famously marching side by side in the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition opening parade wearing the organization's colors.
The Sperry family residence was a mansion that Mary Simpson Sperry had acquired in 1896 following the death of her husband, Austin Sperry. It served as a significant site for the suffrage movement, notably hosting the founding of the Susan B. Anthony Club. Historical documentation, such as the San Francisco Blue Book, confirms that Dr. Mary A. Sperry, Gail Laughlin, and Beda S. Sperry were all listed at this address.
When the devastating influenza epidemic hit San Francisco in 1919, Dr. Sperry devoted long, exhausting hours to caring for the ill, providing vital medical treatment to thousands of afflicted individuals. Ultimately, she succumbed to exhaustion and illness herself, passing away on May 7, 1919, at the age of 55 in San Francisco.
Her death devastated Laughlin and ignited a bitter legal battle. Persistent familial tensions—aggravated by Laughlin's prominent presence and the rejection of traditional gender norms—culminated on August 9, 1917, when Dr. Sperry drew up a new will. She purposely omitted her mother, sister, and brothers, leaving her entire estimated $70,000 estate, her personal effects, and her physical remains entirely to Laughlin. Upon the public reading of the will, Mary S. Sperry contested the document with Judge Dunne, claiming her daughter was completely under Laughlin's domination since October 1903, of weak mentality—arguing health issues stemming from an automobile accident near Denver in September 1909—and alleging that Laughlin used undue influence, poisoned her mind against her family, and engaged in a homosexual relationship. Laughlin fiercely defended her late partner's memory and mental competency, successfully having disparaging remarks expunged from court records to protect Dr. Sperry's professional and personal reputation.
Honoring Dr. Sperry's final instructions, Laughlin had her body cremated and kept her ashes with her for the rest of her life, while Mother Sperry inscribed an "in memoriam" notice on the family plot in Stockton, California. Decades later, when Laughlin passed away in 1952, her will ensured that their partnership was permanently commemorated by requesting that her own cremated remains and those of Dr. Mary Austin Sperry be interred together beneath a single headstone bearing both of their names in the Laughlin family plot at Brooklawn Memorial Park in Portland, Cumberland County, Maine.
References:
 Public Faces, Secret Lives by Wendy L. Rouse |
Other references:
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