| Mary Frances Gunner | |
| Birth Name: | Mary Frances Gunner |
| Birth Place: | Lexington, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Birth Date: | November 9, 1894 |
| Occupation: | Playwright |
| Alma Mater: | Howard University |
| Notableworks: | Light of the Women (1924) |
| Spouse: | Jerry van Dunk |
| Relatives: | Byron Gunner (father) |
Mary Frances Gunner (November 9, 1894 - May 13, 1953) was an African American playwright and community leader based in Brooklyn, New York. She was also known as Francis Gunner Van Dunk.[1]
Mary Frances Gunner was born in Lexington, Kentucky and raised in Hillburn, New York, the daughter of Rev. Byron Gunner and Cicely Savery Gunner. Her parents, both born in Alabama,[2] were active in public life; her father was one of the 29 founders of the Niagara Movement and president of the National Equal Rights League, and her mother, a teacher, was president of the Empire State Federation of Women's Clubs.[3] Her grandfather William Savery, born a slave, was a founder of Talladega College.[4]
She finished at Suffern High School as the only black girl in her class, and as valedictorian.[5] She attended Middlebury College.[6] She also attended Howard University, and was an officer in that school's chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.[7] In 1913, she was initiated into Delta Sigma Theta sorority. She served as President of Alpha Chapter from 1914-1915.[8] In her capacity as President, she requested that Mary Church Terrell write the Sorority's Oath. In 1923, she completed a master's degree in the Political Science department at Columbia University, with a thesis titled "Employment Problems Among Negro Women in Brooklyn."[9]
Mary Frances Gunner worked at the YWCA in Montclair, New Jersey, and after 1921[10] at the Ashland Place YWCA[11] in Brooklyn.[12] She also taught school in New York.[13] Gunner was a branch manager for the New York State Employment Service from 1938 to 1950.[14] She was active in the National Association of College Women.[15]
Her pageant play, Light of the Women (1924), presents the stories of such African-American heroines as Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Fanny Jackson Coppin, and Phillis Wheatley. It was intended for performance by community groups and schools,[16] to teach and celebrate the achievements of African-American women.[17] It was performed in 1927 at the YWCA in Orange, New Jersey.[18]
Mary Frances Gunner married Jerry van Dunk, also from Hillburn, in 1946.[19] She died in Brooklyn in 1953.[20]