Clark, Mary Higgins

Mary Theresa Eleanor Higgins Clark Conheeney, who publishes her work as Mary Higgins Clark, was born in New York on December 24, 1927. Both her parents were of Irish descent. They owned an Irish pub in New York, and her father worked around the clock during the depression in the 1930s to keep ends meet. He died in his sleep in 1939, leaving his wife, two sons and his only daughter in a destitute situation. The children worked to help out, although Mary Higgins after attending the Saint Francis Xavier Grammar School was able to continue her studies at the Villa Maria Academy and the Ward Secretarial School through scholarships and working extra as a telephone operator. She got a job as a secretary when she was eighteen, and was later able to continue her studies as a mature student, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts from Fordham University in the Bronx in 1979.