Brownie Mary

Mary Jane Rathbun (December 22, 1923, Minneapolis, Minnesota - April 10, 1999, Forest Hill, San Francisco, California) popularly known as Brownie Mary, was an American medical cannabis activist. Brownie Mary was famous for baking and distributing Alice B. Toklas brownies and volunteering in the AIDS ward of San Francisco General Hospital. She also helped Dennis Peron establish the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club, and worked on Proposition "P" and California Proposition 215.

In 1986, SFGH's Ward 86 honored Brownie Mary with a "Volunteer of The Year" award. In 1992, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors declared August 25 "Brownie Mary Day". She was named a "Living Saint" in 1994 at the San Francisco Saints Alive Benefit.

Brownie Mary died of a heart attack at a Laguna Honda nursing home for the poor at age 77.

Books

 * (1996). Brownie Mary's Marijuana Cookbook, Dennis Peron's Recipe for Social Change . Trail of Smoke Publishing Co. ISBN 0-9639892-0-0