Mary Ligon Shapard (c. 1882 – c. 1950s), also known as Mary Ligon Christensen, Mrs. Charles R. Shapard, or Mary Myers, was an American author and peace activist who was nominated by United States Senator Morris Sheppard for the Nobel Peace Prize for her World War I-era recommendation that a nonpartisan "league of nations" be established by world leaders to reduce the likelihood of future armed conflicts between countries engaged in international disputes. Reportedly the first American to advocate for the formation of a "league of nations," she was also reportedly the author of the original text used by United States President Woodrow Wilson to create his proposed covenant for the League of Nations, which was subsequently formed on January 10, 1920.
She also urged that women's voices be heard and heeded: "We are today living in a period of prejudice and misrepresentation. England and France have their historians and photographers at the front, so as to keep the record straight, and now is the time to give a correct register of the American women who are so patriotically responding to our country's needs."
Formative years
Born as Mary Ligon in Mississippi, circa 1882, in a house that had been previously used as a Union Army headquarters building by United States General Ulysses S. Grant prior to his capture of the city of Vicksburg during the American Civil War, Mary Ligon Shapard was a daughter of Buxton T. Ligon (1839-1894) and Sarah Cornelia (Barrett) Ligon (1849-1932). Her father, who had been a soldier in the Confederate States Army during that war, had served as a private with Company A of the 1st Mississippi Light Artillery, which was assigned to the CSA's Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana.
By February 14, 1901, she was using the married surname of Christensen, according to a notice in The Clarion-Ledger newspaper in Jackson, Mississippi, which announced that she and her parents, "Baxton" T. and Sarah C. Ligon, and siblings Allen Ligon, Eugenia B. Ligon, J. Allen Ligon, John P. Ligon, Kate Ligon, Minnie Ligon, and Cornelia McGary, were "commanded to appear before the Chancery Court of the first district of Hinds county, Mississippi, on the 2d Monday in March, A.D. 1901, to defend the suit ... of W. J. Caesar, and others."
By 1911, Mary L. Christensen was residing in Wichita Falls, Texas. On February 9 of that year, she was elected as secretary of that community's Civic League and presented the following resolution: "Our State Institutions are erected and maintained by taxation, levied alike on men and women, regardless of political parties or administrations.
Whereas, It has been the practice of the incoming governors to oust the heads of State Institutions, and to appoint such heads as will strengthen them politically, therefore be it
Resolved, That all State Institutions be kept out of politics; that no administration of any State Institution be changed on account of political preference; or for any reason whatsoever except for the betterment of such institutions; where competent executives are now in charge of State Institutions they be retained so long as the good of such institutions required their service."
Two months later, she was appointed to the civil service reform committee of the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs. By March 1913, she was a member of the executive committee of that statewide organization. By April 1913, she was chair of the Peace Movement Committee of the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs and honorary vice president of the International Peace Forum. A delegate to the Fourth American Peace Congress in late April, she lobbied for the creation of an international peace court to resolve international disputes and prevent future wars. In August 1913, she was one of two delegates to represent Texas at a peace conference that was held in The Hague, Netherlands.
A resident of Port Arthur, Texas, she was widowed sometime around late 1913 or early 1914 and took a nearly year-long break from her advocacy work for the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs before returning in November 1914.
Having recently relocated to Houston in September 1915, she became involved in planning the Texas Woman's Fair. Still known as Mary Ligon Christensen (alternate spellings "Leigon" and "Christinsen"), she was documented by newspapers as the mother of Will Christensen of Houston, but changed her surname again when she married Charles R. Shapard shortly before or during 1918.