Mary J. Wilson

Mary Jeannette Wilson (2 January 1937 – 25 May 2020) was the first African-American senior zookeeper at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore.[1]

Early life

Mary J. Wilson was born in West Baltimore, Maryland. She had two siblings, one older and one younger. Her parents were Willie Wilson and Mary Henry. She graduated from Paul Laurence Dunbar High School.[1]

Career

Wilson began working at the then Baltimore Zoo in 1961. She was hired by Arthur R. Watson, who was head of the zoo from 1948 until 1980. From the beginning of her career she worked with mammals, specializing in gorillas, cats and elephants. She retired in 1999.[2]

Death

In July 2019 Wilson started to show signs of Alzheimer's disease. On April 1, 2020 she moved to Genesis Healthcare Patapsco Valley Center in Randallstown, Maryland. On May 4, 2020 she was diagnosed with COVID-19, and was admitted to Northwest Hospital on May 8. She died on May 25 after being unresponsive for 14 days.[2] She was survived by her daughter, Sharron Wilson Jackson, who was the first African-American female senior zookeeper at the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium, in Omaha, Nebraska, and by a grandson, Felipe Herrara.[1][3]

gollark: Nope!
gollark: > Because smaller groups are shafted by the government.No, the government can't really stop you from forming small organizations and getting equipment and stuff, the issue is that research now requires lots of specialized expensive stuff and lots of people with deep knowledge of subjects together.
gollark: I mean, I think getting something which technically counts as a shelter is possible fairly easily, but not something nice and pleasant like a modern house.
gollark: And most scientific progress is done in bigger groups or organizations now.
gollark: You can't "improve mankind" through scientific research if you do not actually have any of the necessary hardware to do research, and there's rather a lot of it.

References
  1. Leland, John (2020-06-02). "Mary J. Wilson, Barrier-Smashing Zookeeper, Dies at 83". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  2. Rasmussen, Frederick N. "Mary J. Wilson, first African American senior zookeeper at the Baltimore Zoo, dies of the coronavirus". baltimoresun.com. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  3. "Mary Wilson, 83, first Black senior zookeeper at Maryland Zoo". The Philadelphia Tribune. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
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