About Mary Sue Anton

An alumna of Loretto Academy in Kansas City, Missouri, Mary Sue (Shy) Anton earned a bachelor of arts degree in history at the University of Houston-Clear Lake in 1989 where she drafted the first UHCLIDIAN style book. She is a freelance writer and wrote for the Houston Chronicle in addition to several other Texas publications. After she co-published “Pioneers of New Madrid, Missouri and Their Descendants” in 1994, Mary Sue conducted workshops on genealogy. Beginning in 1995, she served on the Humanities Advisory Board at the University of Houston-Clear Lake for six years. She is currently a member of the University of Houston-Clear Lake Alumni Executive Council.

Her interest in her hometown history was prompted upon learning that her ancestor, Richard Jones Waters, came to New Madrid in 1789 along with founder George Morgan. She began writing about the history of this Mississippi River town and in 1998, Bay Area Writers League awarded her a first place in its manuscript competition and, in 2002, an honorable mention for her “Civil War Comes to My Hometown.” The State Historical Society of Missouri presented her the Richard S. Brownlee Fund award in 2003. Her book, “New Madrid: A Mississippi River Town in History and Legend,” was released May, 2009.

Mary Sue was born during the Great Depression on the old Hummel place just north of New Madrid. She and her family soon moved to a farm located between the Mississippi River and the levee. During the 1937 flood, riverbank caving forced the Shys to relocate north of town. One of ten children, Mary Sue has numerous family members living in New Madrid. She and her husband, Dr. Arthur Anton, live in Seabrook, Texas and have three grown children and two grandchildren.