Mary was the second born of Michael McManus and his second wife Sarah Murray's two daughters. Her father's previous wife, Elizabeth Mackin, and their infant son had died within a month of each other in 1877. Mary's six year older sister Julia married James H. DeCoursey. Mary was born on September 22, 1888 in Kansas City, Kansas. Her father Michael worked as a blacksmith, and died when she was 20 years old. In 1917 she married Clay Buchan, also of Kansas City. He owned a coal company. Mary died only three years later. According to her obituary she died of complications from the flu, but her death record states a form of septicemia as the cause of death. There was a flu pandemic that lasted from March 1918 to June 1920, commonly called the Spanish flu. It was caused by an unusually severe and deadly strain of the influenza virus, and in contrast to most other outbreaks many of its victims were healthy young adults. Mary and Clay had no children. He later remarried in 1926. Mary's sister Julia died three years after her in 1923. When Julia's husband James remarried in 1928 her mother Sarah went to live with her sister in Lenawee County, Michigan, where she had grown up.

Related Items:
Marriage records for her father's first and second marriages.
Obituary for her father, Michael McManus.
Mary's and her sister Julia's death records.

The Kansas City Times (Kansas City, Missouri)
Friday, 23 April 20, p. 5