Chautauqua Festival 2024 – “Stagecoach Mary” Fields

“Stagecoach Mary” Fields – performed by Becky Stone

HISTORY ALIVE 2024 – Through the Looking Glass  – Image or Truth? Hear their stories in their own words.

The Wild West is an iconic image of America’s westward expansion – we envision conflicts between settlers and Indians, farmers and ranchers and cowboys and townsfolk. Rarely do we see women. Still more rarely do we see women of color. However, both were there and their stories are remarkable, often fun and definitely worth knowing.  Mary Field’s story is one of those.

She was born an enslaved person in Hickman County, Tennessee. Her life experiences took her to work at a convent near Toledo, Ohio and then followed a lifelong friend to St. Peter’s Mission near Cascade, Montana.  And she became “Stagecoach Mary” a legend in her own lifetime.  But alas, she never drove a stagecoach.  The US Postal Service contracted with private carriers to serve remote and sparsely populated areas along what they called the Star Routes.  At 62, Mary Fields won one of those contracts and used her buckboard wagon and horse coupled with experience picking up and delivering supplies for the Montana mission to deliver the mail for over eight years. She was literate, as tall and as strong as a man, an accomplished builder, horse wrangler, gardener — and a crack shot with a rifle.  Yes, she smoked cigars and played cards with men in the saloon – and had quite a temper, but she was also embraced by the Blackfoot Crows who nicknamed her “White Crow” and by white families in Cascade who trusted her with the care of their children.

Becky Stone grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania before going to Vassar College and earning a degree in Drama. After obtaining her M.A. in Elementary Educational Counseling from Villanova University, Becky worked seven years as an elementary and  middle school counselor in the Philadelphia School System.  In North Carolina, she taught drama for ten years at a Christian classical school.  Her performance experience includes acting professionally in regional theater companies and storytelling in schools, universities, museums, festivals, camps and libraries. She presented her first Chautauqua character, Pauli Murray, in 2003 for the Greenville Chautauqua.  Becky has since developed performances for Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, Maya Angelou, Josephine Baker and Mary Fields.

Complete details at Greenville Chautauqua website