Mary Harris Jones

Mary Harris "Mother" Jones (1837 – 30 November 1930) was an Irish-American schoolteacher and dressmaker who became a prominent labor and community organizer. She helped coordinate major strikes and cofounded the Industrial Workers of the World.

Jones worked as a teacher and dressmaker, but after her husband and four children all died of yellow fever in 1867 and her dress shop was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, she began working as an organizer for the Knights of Labor and the United Mine Workers union. From 1897, at about 60 years of age, she was known as Mother Jones. In 1902 she was called "the most dangerous woman in America" for her success in organizing mine workers and their families against the mine owners. In 1903, to protest the lax enforcement of the child labor laws in the Pennsylvania mines and silk mills, she organized a children's march from Philadelphia to the home of President Theodore Roosevelt in New York.

Mother Jones magazine, established in 1970, is named for her.

Mary Harris

Mary Harris may refer to:

See also

Mary Harris (musician)

Mary Harris is an American keyboardist, singer, songwriter, arranger, and producer. She is currently appearing on stage as a member of the five-time Grammy Award nominated band Ambrosia. Harris, as a member of Jimmy Buffett's Coral Reefer Band arranged vocals and sang on recordings and live performances, and has worked with Stewart Copeland and Stanley Clarke, and recorded for Pink Floyd. She is also a founding member of the group Tin Drum.

Childhood

Harris began playing piano at age four, starting formal lessons at age five. She grew up from early childhood in the town of Three Rivers, California where she performed from age ten on with family members locally.

Early music career

Harris' first paying music performances were with bands including Oak Grove and Fair Game in Three Rivers in the seventies and early eighties. She moved to Los Angeles, California in 1982.

Professional career

Although Mary Harris is perhaps best known for her singing and vocal arranging with Jimmy Buffett as a member of the Coral Reefer Band she has performed and recorded with numerous notable music acts including Stewart Copeland, and Stanley Clarke in the band Animal Logic