Mary Culler White, born May 12, 1875, in Perry, Georgia, moved to Hawkinsville when four years old. She is the daughter of George H. and Emma Culler White.
Her early school years were spent in Hawkinsville. Later she attended Wesleyan College, was a member of the Adelphian Sorority, and graduated in 1891.
She taught drawing and painting in the Hawkinsville public schools for seven years.
During a meeting held in the Hawkinsville Methodist Church by Miss Emma Tucker she was deeply impressed and felt the direct call to the foreign field of mission work in 1899. After the necessary course of training at Scarritt College and a brief vacation at her home at Monteagle, Tenn., she, with her aunt, Mrs. Cobb, left for China. She has been there thirty-four years, and has served in the Hayes Wilkins Bible School; as evangelist at the Mary Black Hospital; and for many years has done work from a house boat. This work, with a native Bible woman as helper, and a boatman, she finds arduous, but most satisfying.
When the regular periods for furlough bring her to her homeland she spends most of her vacation trying to be of spiritual help to friends in her native land. Each visit shows the result of her efforts.
The Methodist Missionary Society of Hawkinsville for many years had the pleasure and privilege of supporting Mary Culler White in the foreign field, but during the years of depression it could only assist in the work. However, the Society asks the privilege of including the foregoing sketch in the Pulaski County History, believing that Miss White is one of Pulaski’s outstanding women.
Some of the books written by Mary Culler White are: “The Days of June,” “Pen Pictures,” “The Life Story of Alice Culler Cobb,” “A Daughter of the House Boat,” “Arrows Beyond Thee” (a tribute to her cousin, Eugenia Silver Cobb), “Her Little Serene Highness” (a tribute to Mary Cobb).