Mary Anne Barothy
She joined the staff of The Indianapolis News as a society reporter for nearly two years before moving to Los Angeles in 1968. Her journalism background served her well with future employment at the May Company in Los Angeles and later working with Doris Day. When asked how she landed the position with Miss Day, Mary Anne often says, “It was literally by accident,” referring to a serious car accident she survived. It was during her recovery time that a friendship between Mary Anne and Doris developed. She became Doris Day’s secretary and then moved into her home.
Following her return to Indianapolis in 1977, she was a free-lance writer and became Director of Publicity for Perennial Pictures Film Corporation. She worked in the Education Division at Lilly Endowment and later earned a paralegal degree from Indiana University – Purdue University, Indianapolis. Mary Anne spent nineteen years as Development Assistant for the Little Sisters of the Poor in Indianapolis at St. Augustine’s Home where she helped coordinate fundraising events.
In 2006 Mary Anne Barothy was encouraged to write her memoir. The author intends for the book to bring a Hollywood world now vanished to life. She hopes her memories relay a piece of American cultural history from an author who lived a “day at a time” with a film idol who became a friend. The second edition puts new perspectives on the life of Doris Day and her philanthropy in later years.
