Mary Fisher

Mary Fisher may refer to:

Mary Fisher (activist)

Mary Fisher (born April 6, 1948) is an American political activist, artist and author. After contracting HIV from her second husband, she has become an outspoken HIV/AIDS activist for the prevention, education and for the compassionate treatment of people with HIV and AIDS. She is particularly noted for speeches before two Republican Conventions: Houston in 1992 and San Diego in 1996. The 1992 speech has been hailed as "one of the best American speeches of the 20th Century."

She is founder of a non-profit organization to fund HIV/AIDS research and education, the Mary Fisher Clinical AIDS Research and Education (CARE) Fund. Since May 2006, she has been a global emissary for the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

Early life

Fisher was born Lizabeth Davis Frehling on April 6, 1948, in Louisville, Kentucky, the daughter of Marjorie Faith (née Switow) and George Allen Frehling. Her parents were of Russian Jewish descent. Her parents divorced when Fisher was four, and the following year her mother married multimillionaire Max Fisher, who adopted Fisher.

Mary Fisher (missionary)

Mary Fisher, also Mary Fisher Bayley Crosse, (c.1623 – 1698) was one of the first travelling Quaker ministers. She was one of the Valiant Sixty, the group of early itinerant Quaker preachers whose mission was to spread the spiritual message of the founder of the Quakers, George Fox.

Early life

Mary Fisher was born in north Yorkshire, possibly at Pontefract, England. As a young woman she worked as a housemaid for Richard and Elizabeth Tomlinson in their household at Selby where in late December 1651 she heard the ministry to the Tomlinson family and servants given by George Fox. His message and fellowship resonated profoundly with her and as a result she became an active Quaker.

Ministry and Persecution

In 1652, as a Quaker ‘Publisher of Truth’ Mary Fisher publicly rebuked the vicar of Selby church in an address to his congregation after worship. She was imprisoned in York Castle and later that year she was confined there again with five other Quakers and together they issued a pamphlet, ‘False Teachers and False Prophets Described’. In 1653 and 1654 she was further imprisoned at York for offences against the church in Pontefract.