Only known photo of Miss Mary L. Rahilly (1865-1933). Source: Buddy Wiggins - early caretaker of Rahilly plot

BIO by Phil Gowan
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The only known photo of Miss Mary L. Rahilly
of Corsicana. She was born somewhere in Alabama on June 4, 1865 while her parents were travelling with the railroad. She was the daughter of Cornelius H. Rahilly and wife Mary Conway (it was her mother that was "convicted" of being a lunatic in a lunatic trial held in Corsicana in 1884). Miss Mary was a staunch Catholic. When the wife of her brother, Jim Rahilly, threatened to divorce him in the 1890's, Mary said "Bettie--we are Catholic. We do not believe in divorce and if you divorce Jim, I will never forgive you." Bettie did divorce Jim Rahilly and Mary never did forgive her.

Although she was an attractive woman, Miss Mary never married. She lived for years with her father in their home on Bois D'arc Street (it was located on the southwest corner of what is now South Main Street and West 7th Avenue where the Murchison Building is located). After her father died she continued to live there for a number of years. Her best friend was Minna Bisso, wife of bottler Peter Bisso--they were the same age and grew up across the street from one another.

Miss Mary moved to Dallas for awhile to be near her friend, Miss Emma O'Neill, but came back to Corsicana and lived on South 13th (a block south of where the Corsicana Public library is now located) with her bachelor brother Michael Rahilly. She invested heavily in Texas Power and Light Company through the years, amassing a very nice portfolio of stock in the company. In her old age she was said to have had hair that was whiter than snow. In 1932 she was diagnosed with cancer of the 6th and 7th cervical vertebrae and surgery did not stop the progession of the disease. Her brother Michael had died in 1929 and her brother Jim died in 1932 about the time of the diagnosis of cancer. Her only nephew, Carmel, lived in Shreveport, Louisiana and they had had only minimal contact because of the aforementioned divorce. So as her health failed, she went back to Dallas to the home of Miss Emma O'Neill. She was in tremendous pain during her final days and as one friend of hers told me, "death was a welcome release." She died in Dallas on October 23, 1933 and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery with the rest of her family. In her Last Will & Testament she left the majority of her personal belongings to her friends Ed and Helen Childress but she saw fit to leave all of her stock portfolio in Texas Power and Light to her nephew Carmel--and he promptly sold it.

This photo was taken at the Emil Frey studio in the 1890's.

Corsicana Semi Weekly Light
10-27-1933