Mary Frances Gunner (November 9, 1894 – May 13, 1953) was an American playwright and African American community leader based in Brooklyn, New York. She was also known as Francis Gunner Van Dunk.
Early life and education
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,Angela Jones, African American Civil Rights: Early Activism and the Niagara Movement (ABC-Clio 2011): 220. 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."Hillburn, N. Y." New York Age (July 24, 1943): 9. via Newspapers.com Her grandfather William Savery, born a slave, was a founder of Talladega College.Sallie L. Powell, "Byron Gunner", in Gerald L. Smith, Karen Cotton McDaniel, and John A. Hardin, eds., The Kentucky African American Encyclopedia (University Press of Kentucky 2015): 219-220.
She finished at Suffern High School as the only black girl in her class, and as valedictorian."Miss Mary Frances Gunner" The Crisis (October 1911): 235-236. She attended Middlebury College.Middlebury College, "Students", Catalogue (1915): 133. She also attended Howard University, and was an officer in that school's chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.Howard University Yearbooks, The Mirror (1915): 39. In 1913, she was initiated into Delta Sigma Theta sorority. She served as President of Alpha Chapter from 1914-1915.Howard University, The Mirror (1915 yearbook): 39. In her capacity as President, she requested that Mary Church Terrell write the Sorority's Oath. In 1930, 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."Sallie L. Powell, "Mary Frances Gunner", in Gerald L. Smith, Karen Cotton McDaniel, and John A. Hardin, eds., The Kentucky African American Encyclopedia (University Press of Kentucky 2015): 220.
Career Mary Frances Gunner worked at the YWCA in Montclair, New Jersey, and after 1921"Ashland Branch Y to Have New Secretary" New York Age (September 10, 1921): 8. via Newspapers.com at the Ashland Place YWCA"Whites Kinder in Attitude Towards Negroes is Claim; Frances Gunner, Colored Secretary of YWCA, Sees Improved Race Relations" Bridgeport Telegram (February 13, 1928): 3. via Newspapers.com in Brooklyn.Bernard L. Peterson, ed., Early Black American Playwrights and Dramatic Writers (Greenwood Publishing 1990): 93. She also taught school in New York.Catalogue of Officers and Students of Middlebury College (Middlebury College 1917): 453. Gunner was a branch manager for the New York State Employment Service from 1938 to 1950."Servants Scarce and Expensive As Result of Wartime Pay Rates" Brooklyn Daily Eagle (June 23, 1946): 10. via Newspapers.com She was active in the National Association of College Women.Linda M. Perkins, "The National Association of College Women: Vanguard of Black Women's Leadership and Education, 1923-1954" Journal of Education 172(3)(1990): 68.
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,Lurana Donnels O'Malley, "Spirits in Black and White: Ethiopia as the Black Columbia in African American Pageantry" in Graley Herren, ed. Text & Presentation 2015 (MacFarland 2016): 144-146. to teach and celebrate the achievements of African-American women.Willis Richardson, ed., Plays and Pageants from the Life of the Negro (University Press of Mississippi 1993): 333-342. It was performed in 1927 at the YWCA in Orange, New Jersey."Orange, N. J." Pittsburgh Courier (May 7, 1927): 9. via Newspapers.com
Personal life Mary Frances Gunner married Jerry van Dunk, also from Hillburn, in 1946."Frances Gunner Weds Jerry Van Dunk on Fri. By Rev. Stark" New York Age (February 16, 1946): 7. via Newspapers.com She died in Brooklyn in 1953.
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