Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Mary Cooper was born in 1870 in New Zealand – the daughter of John Cooper and Elizabeth Murphy. (See 113 Elizabeth Cooper)
She spent her childhood in Otago and Nelson before moving to Whanganui.
She married Robert Johnston on 1 July 1890 at her home in Wilson Street.
Her parents ran a boarding house in Wilson Street where Mary was living when she signed the suffrage petition. She appears to have signed in Dunedin along with her mother, possibly while on holiday.
Robert died in 1913 in Auckland after the removal, in hospital, of a goitre.
Mary died in Whanganui on 9 October 1931 – she and Robert are buried in the Heads Road Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/
NZ Intentions to Marry Project https://itm.howison.co.nz/