Mary Woodson Jarvis

Mary Woodson Jarvis
First Lady of North Carolina
In role
February 5, 1879  January 21, 1885
GovernorThomas J. Jarvis
Preceded byHarriett Newell Espy Vance
Succeeded byCatherine Bullock Henderson Scales
Second Lady of North Carolina
In role
January 1, 1877  February 5, 1879
GovernorZebulon Vance
Lieutenant GovernorThomas J. Jarvis
Preceded byvacant
Succeeded byAlice Louisa Siler Robinson
Personal details
Born
Mary Woodson

(1842-12-12)December 12, 1842
DiedFebruary 22, 1924(1924-02-22) (aged 81)
Greenville, North Carolina, U.S.
Resting placeCherry Hill Cemetery
Political partyDemocratic
SpouseThomas J. Jarvis
Occupationwriter

Mary Woodson Jarvis (December 12, 1842 – February 22, 1924) was an American white supremacist, writer, and civic leader who, as the wife of Thomas J. Jarvis, served as the Second Lady of North Carolina from 1877 to 1879 and as the First Lady of North Carolina from 1879 to 1885. She was an active member of the North Carolina Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, serving as president of the George B. Singletary Chapter from 1899 to 1916. A promotor of the pseudo-historical Lost Cause of the Confederacy, she authored the book The Ku-Klux Klans, and the booklet The Conditions that Led to the Ku Klux Klans, which glorified the Ku-Klux Klan and condoned the Klan's use of terror against African-Americans in North Carolina.