Genre: | Drama |
Director: | Jud Taylor |
Producer: | Terence Nelson Robert B. Radnitz |
Teleplay: | Caryl Ledner |
Starring: | Ed Flanders Fionnula Flanagan Kathleen Beller |
Music: | Leonard Rosenman |
Cinematography: | Bill Butler |
Editor: | Fred A. Chulack |
Company: | Radnitz/Mattel Productions |
Network: | ABC |
Runtime: | 102 minutes |
Country: | United States |
Language: | English |
Mary White is a 1977 made-for-TV period biographical movie directed by Jud Taylor about American newspaper editor and author William Allen White (played by Ed Flanders) and his teenage daughter Mary (played by Kathleen Beller), who died at age 16 in a horseback riding accident. The film is based on the true story of White's daughter Mary Katherine, who died in 1921 and was the subject of a well-known eulogy written by her father.[1]
Caryl Ledner won the Emmy Award for Best Teleplay, Movie-For-Television, in the 1977-78 season. The film often appeared on television in the 1980s, and is now on DVD.
In Emporia, Kansas, in the late 1910s and early 1920s, Mary Katherine White, a teenage girl, comes of age. Having grown up in wealth and privilege, as a result she meets famous people of the day. In 1921, at age 16, she dies in a riding accident. Her story is recounted in flashback style by her father, a famous editor, author and publisher.