Mary Keane retired to Wakefield, Rhode Island, after a career in publishing production and management, mostly in the Boston area. Almost immediately, she was introduced to the Pettaquamscutt Historical Society in Kingston, where she became an active member and worked on the Society’s publications, including its newsletters and several books: Lost South Kingstown, with a History of Ten of Its Early Villages, now in its fourth printing; Crime, Punishment, and the Washington County Jail: Hard Time in Kingston, Rhode Island; and Picturing History: Wakefield’s Post Office Mural of 1939. Along the way, she met Christian McBurney and copyedited his book for the Society, Jailed for Preaching: The Autobiography of Cato Pearce, a Freed Slave from Washington County, Rhode Island. She has helped several people publish their memoirs, and she is currently involved in the development of a children’s book. She can often be found at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at the University of Rhode Island, where she takes an occasional class when she is not otherwise occupied preparing its catalogs.
