ary lived in ten states and a U.S. territory before arriving in Kansas City, MO in 1975. She was born in Council Bluffs, IA and she, her brother and their parents moved to the west coast when Mary was in early grade school. She played the tenor saxophone for four years starting in seventh grade and put it aside after the tenth grade so she could concentrate on art work. She graduated from Presentation High School in Berkeley, CA and attended Holy Names College in Oakland, CA for three years before she married Arthur Schmidt. They reared five children together until his death in 1986. After that Mary completed here Bachelor’s Degree at Park Univiersity. Through one of her classmates, she found out about the North Star Community Band. Since she did not have a saxophone anymore, she rented one and joined that band in 1989. It was there that she met Sherree Shilt who started the Overtones of KC. Sherree invited Mary to join her band and Mary said she would play only until a replacement was found. A replacement never appeared and Mary has been with the band since its inception. Mary has had a variety of jobs including teaching 5th grade in a quonset hut on Guam, being a bank teller, doing secretarial work, clerking in a jewelry store, working in a warehouse, doing health coaching and proofreading manuscripts. She has retired twice. The first was from Sony Electronics in N. Kansas City after fifteen years. She married John Ring in 1991 and they moved to Lenexa, KS. She worked with him at Ring Public Accountant as a payroll clerk for thirteen years before both of them retired in 2015. Mary and John have a blended family of seven children, ten grandchildren, and ten great grandchildren and counting. Besides playing in the band, Mary likes to make jewelry, read mystery stories, travel and socialize with her friends from various organizations. She enjoys all kinds of music but especially the “big band” sound. She considers the camaraderie with the Overtones something very special.