Mary Stafford was a Unitarian minister who was president of the Iowa Association of Unitarian Churches, president of the Iowa Equal Suffrage Association, later was president of the Florida Equal Suffrage Association, was on the board of directors of the National American Suffrage Association and was a gifted orator. She also helped organize the Men’s Equal Suffrage League in Orlando. In March 1919, Orlando leaders passed an ordinance authorizing women to vote in all municipal elections.