Dr. Mary Douglas Ayres Ewell
Commission for Women's
Notable UT Woman Award Presentation

September 9, 1998

BIOGRAPHY

Mary Douglas Ayres was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and at the age of nine moved to Tennessee when her father, Brown Ayres, was named president of the University of Tennessee. In 1917 she received a Bachelor of Arts degree and a teacher certificate in physical education from Sophie Newcomb College for Women in New Orleans.

While a student, Ayres played basketball for Clara Baer, credited with being the founder of women's basketball. She also was a track standout at the college and was honored as the most outstanding women's athlete in the South.

After graduation she taught school in Virginia at the Homestead School for Girls, and joined the Army Nurses' Corps in Washington, D.C. It was in Washington that she met her future husband, Frank Ewell, who was in the Army.

Mary Ayres returned to Knoxville in 1919 and was named coach for the University of Tennessee girls' basketball team. In March 1920, UT women students, with Ayres's approval, requested "equal rights and privileges" with male athletes including team travel to other colleges for athletic events, increased funding for the women's program, and representation on the Athletic Council. It is significant that these requests occurred more than fifty years before Title IX.

Ayres married Mr. Ewell in June 1920 and moved to Pennsylvania where three daughters, Gertrude, Kathryn, and Mary Lee, were born to the family. The Ewells moved back to Knoxville during the 1930s. Mrs. Ewell went to work as clerk and later secretary for Professor Robert C. "Red" Matthews, secretary/treasurer of the national Tau Beta Pi Engineering Society, headquartered in the University of Tennessee's Estabrook Hall. Mary Douglas Ayres Ewell, a resident of Shannondale Nursing Home for eleven years, was 103 on February 25, 1998.

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