You are an inspiration to us all.
U.S. President Ronald Reagan to Mary Beck
Mary Virginia (Marusia Eugenia) Beck was an American lawyer and politician and an active member of the Ukrainian diaspora in the United States. She is known as “The Lady of Many Firsts”: the first Ukrainian woman lawyer and journalist in the United States and the first woman to head the Detroit City Council.
Marusia was born on February 29, 1908, in Ford City, Pennsylvania, USA, to immigrants from the Lemko region. Mary’s parents diligently maintained national traditions in their home, spoke Ukrainian with their children, and taught them Taras Shevchenko’s poetry. Even at 90, Mary Beck impressed others with her knowledge of Kobzar’s poems, reciting them fluently at Ukrainian community gatherings. Studying with her younger brother Ivan in Ukraine (by her parents’ will) at the Chortkiv and Kolomyia gymnasiums was essential to forming her personality and national identity. Marusia also danced in the Vasyl Avramenko troupe and was a Plast member.
She graduated from the University of Pittsburgh Law School (1932) and became the first woman to receive a PhD at this University. In 1949, Mary Beck was elected to the Detroit City Council (the first woman to do so), and a year later, she became its mayor (1950-1970).
Detroit is indebted to her for several social initiatives: increasing the number of women in local government and combating discrimination against them, fines for deputies for swearing words that went to charity, caring for the environment, clean drinking water, preservation of monuments, social support for people experiencing poverty, development of youth sports, etc.
Mary Beck also directed her energy and organizational skills to the Ukrainian diaspora, doing much to establish its women’s organizations and the World Federation of Ukrainian Women’s Organizations. She founded the 26th chapter of the Ukrainian Women’s Association of America (1933), edited the Ukrainian magazine “Zhinochyi Svit” (Woman’s World, 1932-1934), where she published her works under the pseudonym Marusya Synenka, and founded several literary contests later named after her. She managed the Ukrainian pavilion at Chicago’s 1933-1934 World’s Fair “A Century of Progress”.
In 1970, she was elected vice president of the Ukrainian government in exile. Since 1974, she has been the Executive Director of the Ukrainian Press Service , representing the Ukrainian diaspora and Ukraine to the highest levels of the U.S. government. Mary Beck was called a “freedom fighter” in the diaspora for her active public work to draw the attention of the U.S. government and the international community to the plight of the Ukrainian people. As a public figure and Detroit mayor, she constantly mentioned Ukraine in her speeches, which had a significant impact, as Mary was also an unsurpassed speaker.
An indicator of Mary Beck’s authority in American society was the attention paid to her in her old age. Thus, four American presidents congratulated her on her 85th birthday — Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush. Mary Beck is an honorary Baltimore, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Winnipeg, and Sydney citizen. Ukrainian diaspora also paid tribute to her by awarding her honors from the Government of the Ukrainian People’s Republic in Exile and the Ukrainian World Congress. Currently, Ukrainian diaspora holds a contest for young writers in her honor.
Mary Beck died at 97 on January 30, 2005, in Clinton Township, Michigan, USA. She is buried at the Ukrainian Orthodox Cemetery in South Bound Brook, New Jersey.
