A member of several social and civic organizations, Mary “Polly” Dawson Ware also served on the boards for a local school and a children’s home. Some of her other talents were very practical, her husband said. “She was a good conversationalist. She knew a little about everything,” James C. Ware said. “She was a good mother – raised two fine children. She was a good homemaker. We don’t have many of them around any more.” Mrs. Ware, 74, of Lakeside Park, died at 8:52 a.m. Monday at St. Elizabeth Medical Center South. She was the first woman elected to the Beechwood Board of Education. She joined the board about 1962 and served 1 1/2 years before moving out of the district, her husband said. But she was able to accomplish what she set out to do, said Ware, a former Kenton County senator and Senate majority leader. “She wasn’t trying to set the world on fire. Just some things up there that she wanted to change or at least try to do something about it,” he said. One goal Mrs. Ware reached was getting a lounge built for teachers, he said. Mrs. Ware also served on the junior and senior boards of the Covington Protestant Children’s Home, now called the Children’s Home of Northern Kentucky. She was also a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Colonel Dames, and Ft. Mitchell Baptist Church. She was a former member of the Tri-Delta sorority. One of her favorite pastimes was books, her husband said. “She read everything.” Other survivors include a son, James Orie Ware of Lexington; a daughter, Mary McBrayer of Lexington; a brother, William C. Dawson of Lakeside Park; and three grandchildren. Mary McBrayer is married to Terry McBrayer, a Lexington attorney, former state legislator and a gubernatorial candidate in 1979. Services will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday at Highland Cemetery Chapel, Ft. Mitchell. Visitation will begin there at 9 a.m. Wednesday. Swindler and Currin Funeral Home, Latonia, is in charge of arrangements. Memorials are suggested to the Children’s Home, to the Book of Remembrance of Ft. Mitchell Baptist Church or to charity of donor’s choice.

Source: Kentucky Post, The (Covington, KY) – Tuesday, September 25, 1990