Mary Ann was the elder child of Gladys and Anthony Sapienza, born in Minneapolis, MN, and raised in Brooklyn, NY. When she started school, she said, every other girl was called Mary, so she added her middle name, spelled as "two words, no e".
Mary Ann attended Hunter College High School For Gifted Girls, Queens College where she gained a BA, University of Washington (MA in Classics), Michigan State University (Teaching Certificate), and University of Michigan (MS in Library Science). She worked in the libraries at the University of Utah as well as for most of her career at Michigan State University.
Mary Ann was the spouse for over fifty years of Wm. Blake Tyrrell and mother of Blake Anthony Tyrrell.
Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared below for the Tyrrell family.
