Life Of Mary Kenner
Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner, or Mary Kenner, was an African-American woman who lived from 1912 until 2006, was an inventor. Mary Beatrice Davidson’s full name was In addition to being the creator of a number of inventions that are still in use today, Kenner holds the record for the most patents held by an African American woman.
Kenner was born on May 17th, 1912, in the city of Monroe, located in the state of North Carolina. Her sister, Mildred Davidson Austin Smith, is her only sibling, and her father was the famous inventor Sidney Nathaniel Davidson. According to the available public sources, her mother’s identity is a mystery. However, Mary Kenner began inventing at the age of six, when she attempted to invent a self-oiling door hinge.
Mary Kenner went on to receive many patents for her innovations in her forties. The inventor came from a creative household. Her paternal grandfather, Robert Phromeberger, is known for inventing a tricolor light signal for railroads and a stretcher with wheels for ambulances. Both of these inventions were quite successful. Her father received a patent in 1914 for a clothes presser that could be folded up and stored in a bag. In the year 1980, her sister came up with the idea for the board game known as “Family Treedition.”
As a child, Mary Kenner came up with a lot of inventive solutions to problems, such as a portable ashtray that could be attached to a cigarette pack, a sponge tip that could be attached to the end of an umbrella to soak up precipitation, and a convertible roof that would go over the folding rumble seat of the automobile. Mary Kenner became acquainted with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in 1924, the year that her family relocated to Washington, District of Columbia, through exploring the facility and becoming familiar with the patent application procedure.
Mary Kenner received his diploma from Dunbar High School in 1931 and enrolled in the first semester at Howard University. However, she left school after a year and a half due to financial difficulties. After that, she worked a variety of odd jobs before landing a position with the federal government in 1941. Mary Kenner remained in that role throughout the remainder of the decade. She began her career as a florist in 1950 and continued to own and operate a flower store well into the 1970s, all while creating new items in her leisure time.
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In 1957, Mary Kenner received her first patent, which was for a hygienic belt. In spite of the fact that she had initially invented the sanitary belt in the 1920s, she was unable to obtain a patent for it. With time, she was able to make improvements to her earlier version as well as to other models that had been patented before hers. It was a typical issue for women during that time period for menstrual blood to get on their clothing; thus, the sanitary belt was created to help solve this problem.
The Sonn-Nap-Pack Company learned of this idea in 1957 and approached the inventor with the intention of marketing her product, but after learning that the inventor was a Black woman, the company decided against doing so. Women ceased using sanitary belts at the same time that beltless pads were introduced in the 1970s and tampons gained widespread use. In 1976, Kenner was granted a patent for an attachment that could be attached to a walker or wheelchair.
The attachment consisted of a pouch that could be used to carry objects and a tray that had a hard surface. The toilet paper holder that she and her sister created and patented in 1982 was named after them. Her last patent, which was awarded on September 29, 1987, was for a back washer and massager that were installed on a chair. James “Jabbo” Kenner and Mary Davison Kenner tied the knot in the year 1951.
In 1983, he passed away. They took in five children as foster children and ultimately decided to adopt one of them, Woodrow. Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner passed away on January 13, 2006, in the city of Washington, District of Columbia. She was 93 years old. For all of her hard work, Kenner was not given any prizes or other formally recognized accolades.
However, her ideas and inventions helped pave the way for other innovations that came after them. Kenner continues to hold the record for the most number of patents granted to a Black woman by the government of the United States, which is five.
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