Ann Mara (June 18, 1929 – February 1, 2015) was an American businesswoman, socialite, philanthropist, the wife and later widow of

Wellington Mara Wellington Timothy Mara (August 14, 1916 – October 25, 2005) was the co-owner of the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL) from 1959 until his death. He was the younger son of Tim Mara, who founded the Giants in 1925. Wellingto ...

, and the matriarch of the

Mara family The Mara family is an Irish-American family primarily known for owning the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL) since the formation of the franchise in 1925. The Maras owned the team outright until 1991, when a feud led to one side ...

, which includes New York Giants CEO

John Mara John K. Mara ( ; born December 1, 1954) is the president, CEO, and co-owner of the New York Giants. Early life Mara was born in New York City and grew up in White Plains, a nearby suburb. He is the eldest son of Ann Mara (née Mumm) and la ...

, and her granddaughters, actresses

Rooney Mara Patricia Rooney Mara ( ; born April 17, 1985) is an American actress. She has received various accolades, including a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, ...

and

Kate Mara Kate Rooney Mara ( ; born February 27, 1983) is an American actress. She is known for work in television, playing reporter Zoe Barnes in the Netflix political drama ''House of Cards'' (2013–2014; 2016), computer analyst Shari Rothenberg in t ...

Personal life

Mara was born Ann Maria Teresa Mumm in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, the daughter of Olive ( née DuBord) and George Mumm. She was of German, French-Canadian, and Irish ancestry. She married Wellington Mara (1916–2005) in 1954 and had eleven children. Ann Mumm met

by chance when a woman fainted at a 7:30 a.m. Mass that they both regularly attended. Both Ann and Wellington rushed to her side to help. Three of their early dates took place at Yankee Stadium, Madison Square Garden, and the Fordham gymnasium. After that Ann and Wellington were married, in 1954. They took their honeymoon in Southern California. Ann and Wellington had 11 children (7 girls and 4 boys) and 42 grandchildren. All their girls attended Convent of the Sacred Heart. Her husband is considered to have been one of the most influential figures in the history of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

as the owner of the New York Giants. Ann Mara had been called the "First Lady of Football". As a philanthropist, she donated money to various causes. In November 2014 she dedicated the opening of a new building for the San Miguel Academy for children at risk, which was built through the NFL Snowflake Foundation.

Media attention

Mara was an active member of the Giants community. In 2012 she gained media attention after having an argument with

Terry Bradshaw Terry Paxton Bradshaw (born September 2, 1948) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the National Football League (NFL). Since 1994, he has been a television sports analyst an ...

Death

Mara was in good health until she fell on ice when she was fetching her newspaper outside of her

Harrison Harrison may refer to: People * Harrison (name) * Harrison family of Virginia, United States Places In Australia: * Harrison, Australian Capital Territory, suburb in the Canberra district of Gungahlin In Canada: * Inukjuak, Quebec, or " ...

home. Mara's housekeeper usually went to get the paper but on that day Mara went to get it herself. She died from pneumonia two weeks after her fall, on February 1, 2015. She was 85 years old. She was remembered with a moment of silence during

Super Bowl XLIX Super Bowl XLIX was an American football game played to determine the champions of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2014 season. The American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots defeated the National Football Conf ...

; also, the Giants wore a patch on the right side of their uniforms, near the shoulders during the following season in her memory, with the letters "ATM" in black on a white circle background.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mara, Ann 1929 births 2015 deaths American socialites Philanthropists from New York (state) Mara family American people of Irish descent Accidental deaths from falls Accidental deaths in New York (state) People from Manhattan American people of German descent American people of French-Canadian descent New York Giants Catholics from New York (state) 20th-century American philanthropists Burials at Gate of Heaven Cemetery (Hawthorne, New York)