Mary Sinclair Scott, fifth child and first daughter of William and Janet Scott, was born in Lancaster, Ontario in 1889. She graduated from high school in Williamstown, Ontario but was unable to continue her education as her family needed her assistance to move to Alberta. Once settled in the new province, she worked as a salesperson, selling religious material to homesteaders from 1910 to 1913. She then continued her studies in Household Economics at the Claresholm Agricultural College from 1915 to 1916.

Mary was involved with the temperance movement and was a member of the Women’s Christian Temperance Movement and the Alberta Temperance Union. She was also an early feminist and became involved with the suffragette movement with Nellie McClung.

After the First World War, Mary took a business course and secured a job as District Cashier for the Prudential Insurance Company of America, where she worked for eight years.

Mary married Athelstan Bisset in 1925 and the couple would have three children: Donald Herbert (1927, died in infancy), Mary Beryl (1927-), and Lorna Helen (1930-). Despite her new responsibilities as a working mother, Mary maintained her civic activities in the Women’s Musical Club, Women’s Canadian Club, United Church Women, Bible Society, and the Edmonton Symphony. Mary died in 1978.