Mary Baylor
Mary Freeman Baylor, a lifelong resident of Clarksville, spent her professional life struggling to improve the quality of life of Clarksville residents and fighting to preserve the historic Clarksville Community.
Ms. Baylor was born in 1929 on West 10th Street in Clarksville and lived her entire life on that street. She was a graduate of old L.C. Anderson High School and attended Tillotson College before marrying Charles Baylor. Together they had 5 children - Cynthia, Linda, Vicky, Ronnie, and Skip. Ms. Baylor’s ancestors were among the early settlers of Clarksville, one of the earliest freedmen colonies established west of the Mississippi River after the Civil War ended.
Ms. Baylor believed service to one’s community to be one of the most important callings a person could have. In 1964, she became a volunteer with President Johnson’s War on Poverty program and soon after that began asking the City of Austin to provide Clarksville with the public services it had been denied, like sewers, paved roads, and street lights — basic services that the white neighborhoods surrounding Clarksville had enjoyed for a long time. Finally, between 1975 and 1979, the City began providing these services to Clarksville using millions of dollars in federal funds. The city also built a park where the Clarksville Colored School had been located. That park is now known as Mary Baylor Clarksville Park.
In 1968, Ms Baylor began working for Austin’s Health and Human Services Department and was appointed Director of the Clarksville Neighborhood Center, a position she held for 19 years. Under her leadership, the Center became an invaluable resource for Clarksville residents, providing food and clothing for the needy and referrals to legal and medical resources. It also organized volunteer and youth programs in the neighborhood, helped Clarksville residents find affordable housing and jobs, and assisted them with the completion of food stamp and welfare applications.
Baylor also fought against the construction of MoPac, which destroyed one third of Clarksville. Later, she and others in the community successfully stopped the construction of a proposed Crosstown Expressway, which would have run through the heart of the neighborhood.
A lifelong member of Sweet Home Missionary Baptist Church, Ms Baylor was also one of the founders of the Clarksville Community Development Corporation.
Ms. Baylor’s awards include the City of Austin Distinguished Service Award and the Texas Community Improvement Award.
Ms Baylor died on March 16, 1997 and is buried in Austin’s historic Oakwood Cemetery. After her death, the Seventy-fifth Texas Legislature honored her accomplishments by passing a resolution commemorating all she did for Clarksville and the City of Austin. At her funeral, Ms Baylor was eulogized by Rev. W. B. Southerland of Sweet Home. He described her as “the primary instrument in bringing Clarksville from rocks and mud to paved streets and sod around the houses.”
More can be learned about Ms. Baylor’s life at https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/baylor-mary-frances-freeman
Information provided by Linda Baylor, Mary Baylor’s daughter.
