This Saturday, Knoxville’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade steps off at 1 p.m. downtown after a two-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic. One of the many participating groups will be Knoxville’s Suffrage Coalition (SC), appropriate since March is Women’s History Month.
Local artist Mary Ruden will be marching right along with them, and many of her creations are integral to the coalition’s presentation. She created life-sized cutouts of seven important Tennessee suffragists for participants to carry along the route. She also made half-sized versions that can ride along in cars, when they’re able to round up drivers with 1920s era automobiles such as Model Ts.
“We’d love to have more people with those antique cars join us,” Ruden said. “It’s also helpful for some of our members that have a harder time walking the route.”
Ruden also designed the SC’s magnets that go on its parade cars. She is a multi-media artist and photographer. She sketches, paints and sculpts. She also quilts, welds and is handy with concrete and is a specialist in public art. Art restoration is also on her résumé. She did extensive repair work on the Overmountain Men statue at Sycamore Shoals as well as the Fort Watauga Monument in Elizabethton.
She is also quite passionate about preserving the history of the suffrage movement and said that using art to tell those stories just makes sense.
“There are so many worthy women, prominent women with such interesting stories.” Ruden said. “I thought, why not work with that in art. It keeps history alive, whether it’s through the visual arts, music, literature or theatrical productions.”
Bust of Lizzie Crozier French, Photo courtesy of Mary Ruden.
She produced a bronze bust of Knoxville suffragist Lizzie Crozier French, one of which is currently on display at City Hall in Salisbury, North Carolina. The other will come out for the SC’s annual Febb Burn Banquet and Fundraiser May 24 at Marble Hall and Pavilion in Lakeshore Park.
Ruden is the vice-chair of American history for the Daughters of the American Revolution-Appalachian region. It’s interesting that she is so invested in area history because she’s not from here. A native of Chicago, she majored in fine arts in college (no surprise) and went on to teach at the collegiate level in Miami. So, what, exactly, brought her to East Tennessee?
“I wanted a change from hurricanes,” Ruden said with a laugh. She wasn’t interested in returning to the winters of the Midwest, either. But for her, it was actually more than just wanting a change in weather.
“Knoxville has everything to offer. It has its own symphony, ballet, jazz orchestra, theatre companies – there’s so much action here, so many history museums. And the natural beauty, of course,” Ruden said. “People, I think, really underestimate this area. It’s full of very interesting people from many diverse backgrounds.”
Ruden lives in Seymour, just over the Knox County line. Beyond her art and love of history, she is an avid gardener and member of the Sevierville Garden Club. She’s a botanical artist and advocate for native plants and gardening for pollinators. She is as involved in activities in Sevier County as she is in Knox.
But this week she’ll be busy preparing for the St. Patrick’s Day parade and wearing her suffragist colors of white, purple and yellow.
“I love this history,” Ruden said. “This is my way of keeping it alive.”
To learn more about the Suffrage Coalition go here and about Ruden go here.
Beth Kinnane is the community news editor for KnoxTNToday.com.