Mary Ann Shaw was remembered today as a good friend who also put long hours into projects she believed in, particularly the renovation of the Confederate Memorial building.
Mrs. Shaw, 86, died last Sunday at St. Catherine’s Village in Madison. She had moved to Madison in 2009 to be closer to her family. Services were at 1 p.m. today at St. Catherine’s Village Chapel..
Mrs. Shaw, a native of Greenwood, was very dedicated to the Daughters of the American Revolution and the United Daughters of the Confederacy and also was active in many charities. She received the Commonwealth’s Community Service Award in 2003.
“I think she went out of her way to help anybody she could,” said Annette McCluney, second vice president of the UDC chapter. “I know she really thought a lot of the UDC and the Memorial Building.”
In 1944, Mrs. Shaw married Joseph Reid Bingham, whom she had met at the University of Mississippi. He passed away in 1969, and she married George Shaw of Dallas in 1979. She returned to Greenwood after Mr. Shaw died in 1982. Before coming back home, she lived a variety of places including Providence, R.I., Gulfport, Natchez, Little Rock and New Orleans, and worked in the oil business, among other endeavors.
She was involved in the DAR in New Orleans and Gulfport but became more active in the group as well as the UDC after coming back to Greenwood. Frances Simpson, then-president of the Greenwood chapter of the UDC, asked if she would be interested in remodeling part of the Confederate Memorial Building.
Mrs. Shaw, who had studied home economics and interior design in college, dove into the project.
She worked hard for years overseeing its renovations and also secured $115,000 in donations and a $70,000 bank loan after a fire damaged the structure. She also remained active raising money for the building, which has hosted many concerts, theater productions, recitals, weddings, reunions and other events through the years.
“This has been so dear to me,” she said in a 2003 interview done in conjunction with the Commonwealth award. “I just love working with buildings, and I think if I had my life to do over again, I would be an architect.”
Tennie McCormick said she was close to Mrs. Shaw and her family for many years. McCormick said the family invited her on a trip with them back in the 1930s when she was still in school.
“We went swimming and we went out on a boat, things I had never done before,” she said.
The two later worked together in the DAR.
“Anything she took on to do, she did it exactly right. ... You could call on her to take on any responsibility, whether you were working on it with her or not,” McCormick said.
Liz Arnold, the current president of the UDC’s J.Z. George, No. 228 Chapter, said Mrs. Shaw was “a very sweet person” who remained active in the group until the day she left. The community has gotten a lot of use out of the Confederate Memorial Building, she said.
“She took care of it for many long years,” Arnold said.
