Mary Stalcup Markward Explained

Mary Stalcup Markward
Birth Name:Mary R. Stalcup
Birth Date:10 February 1922
Birth Place:Fairfax County, Virginia, US
Death Place:Silver Spring, Maryland, US
Resting Place:Baltimore National Cemetery
Known For:FBI informant
Occupation:Beauty shop and FBI Informant
Spouse:George A. Markward

Mary R. Stalcup Markward (February 10, 1922 – November 23, 1972) was for seven years a member of the Washington, DC "District Communist Party" as director of the party's membership. She was actually working undercover for the FBI.[1]

Background

She was born as Mary R. Stalcup to Maria and Benjamin Stalcup on February 10, 1922.[2] Benjamin Stalcup worked as a government bookbinder. Mary lived in Fairfax County, Virginia, and was recruited by the FBI in 1943, just a week after her wedding. Her husband, George A. Markward (1912–1969), had been sent to Europe to fight in World War II.

Career

Markward was working in a beauty shop on Massachusetts Avenue.[1] [3] She may have been approached to spy because several of her clients were thought to be Communists by the FBI. Her daughter believed that her mother's essay written about her pride in being an American brought her to the attention of the FBI. The essay was published in a local Virginia paper.[1] Markward worked undercover for almost seven years, a time that was stressful for her because she was shunned by friends and family because of her activities with the Party.[3] [4]

After consulting earlier in the year with HUAC, the Party heard and expelled her in February 1951.[5]

Markward testified before the House Committee on Un-American Activities on July 11, 1951, that Annie Lee Moss, Maurice Braverman, and about 240 other people were Communist Party members.[4] She provided the names of their spouses and gave the exact dates of party meetings. While her memory of membership and Party activities was largely accurate, Markward did not provide evidence that the Communist Party had any strength in the DC area. At one point in her testimony, she even joked about the Party's inability to recruit young, new members. In the list of members she did provide, there appeared to be a connection between Party membership and civil rights activism; several people whom Markward accused were less involved with communism and more concerned with picketing segregated areas of the city.

HUAC also questioned her in a manner to discredit the all-but-defeated the Progressive Party from the 1948 election:

Mr. Velde: As to the Communist Party connection with the Progressive Party, could you describe that briefly?
Mrs. Markward: The Progressive Party?
Mr. Velde: Yes. Was the Progressive Party infiltrated by the Communist Party after it was organized, or was the Communist Party responsible for the beginning of the Progressive Party organization?
Mrs. Markward: I don't believe the Progressive Party could have been organized without the energy and activity of various Communists in Maryland and the District of Columbia. They decided it was a desirable organization, and put everything they had to see that it was organized. Several committees, known as political action committees, were set up on city and district levels, and the people on those committees were to see that the Progressive Party did function.
Mr. Velde: Did any of the funds of the Communist Party go into the campaign of the Progressive Party?
Mrs. Markward: I don't know one way or another.
Mr. Velde: In Maryland?
Mrs. Markward: I don't know.[6]

Her accusation of Annie Lee Moss is the most remembered; Moss categorically denied membership or collusion with communists. Moss claimed that she was a victim of mistaken identity; that she was not the only person in Washington named Annie Lee Moss, and the communist Markward identified was a different Annie Lee Moss. However, files declassified years later confirmed Markward's identification as accurate.[7]

Later life

Mary Stalcup Markward contracted multiple sclerosis early in her life, which caused her to retire from the FBI. Later, FBI officials refused to acknowledge her, and retroactively taxed the income she received as an undercover agent. She died on November 23, 1972, in Silver Spring, Maryland, at age 50.[8] [9] She was buried in Baltimore National Cemetery.[10]

People named by Markward

On the stand on July 11, 1951, Markward would name or confirm names mentioned by HUAC, as follows:

Mr. Tavenner: Will you give us the names of those who served with you from time to time as members of the district board?
Mrs. Markward: Al Lannon was the chairman while he was here.He was replaced by Phil Frankfeld ...

She also named Sheppard Carl Thierman[11] and Annie Lee Moss.

Notes and References

  1. News: Pointing the Way in the Hunt for Communists. . Mary Stalcup Markward appeared nervous as she made her way into the cramped hearing room on the morning of July 11, 1951. ... . . July 5, 1999 . 2007-09-25 .
  2. [:Image:1930 census Stalcup.gif|1930 US Census with Stalcups]
  3. News: Woman Tells of Outwitting Reds In Seven Years as Agent for F.B.I. . Mrs. Mary Stalcup Markward, 29-year-old former beauty shop worker, told today how she worked for nearly seven years as an undercover agent for the Federal . . July 7, 1951. 2008-03-11 .
  4. News: F.B.I. Woman Limns Hard Lives of Reds. Agent Discloses Communist Party Tactics. . A Communist's life is not a happy one, the House committee on Un-American Activities was told today by a young woman who had spent almost seven years as a rank-and-file member of the party while an undercover agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. . . July 12, 1951. 2008-03-11 .
  5. Book: Pederson , Vernon, L. . The Communist Party In Maryland, 1919-1957. Champaign, Illinois. University of Illinois Press. 172–180. 2001. 9780252023217. 5 August 2017.
  6. Book: Hearings Relating to Communist Activities in the Defense Area of Baltimore–Part 1. US GPO for the Committee on Un-American Activities, U.S. House of Representatives. 784 (Progressive), 769–775 (names). 1951. 5 August 2017.
  7. Friedman . Andrea . Andrea Friedman (historian) . September 2012 . The strange career of Annie Lee Moss: Rethinking race, gender and McCarthyism . . . 94 . 2 . 445–468 . 10.2307/25094960 . 25094960.
  8. News: Mary Markward, FBI Informant, Dies. . Mary Stalcup Markward, a beauty shop operator who became an FBI informant and identified more than 200 persons as Communists during congressional hearings in the early 1950s, died of heart failure Thursday at her home in Silver Spring, Maryland. She was 50. . . November 25, 1972 .
  9. [Social Security Death Index]
  10. Web site: Baltimore National Cemetery. 2018-12-23 . interment.net .
  11. News: John H.. Fenton. Witness Insists Officer was Red. Thierman Belonged to Party if She Processed His Card, Ex-F.B.I. Woman Says. . Mrs. Mary Stallcup Markward, a former undercover agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, asserted today it would "not be even remotely possible" for her to have processed the Communist party application card of Lieut. Sheppard Carl Thierman without his already having been accepted as a member. . . May 2, 1953. 2008-06-21 .

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