The winner of the 1928 competition to compose original music and original words for the university alma mater was a singer, composer, and poetess. Mary Meek was born in Knoxville and attended Knoxville schools and Mary Washington College in Abingdon. She also attended the Summer School of the South at UT.
A soprano, she showed exceptional musical talent at an early age and studied with London tenor William Courtney, who taught in New York. She had two songs published at age 18 and records made with the Columbia Company. She represented Tennessee at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair and at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904. At the Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta, she sang an aria from Gounod’s Queen of Sheba at the opening ceremonies, accompanied by the exposition band, conducted by composer Victor Herbert.
During World War I, she was chairman of musical activities when thousands of soldiers were encamped near Chattanooga. While she was not a UT alumna (other than attendance at the Summer School of the South), she had strong UT connections. Her great-grandfather, John Mason, prepared the design for Old College in 1826. Her grandfather, Judge Samuel Boyd, was a graduate of Blount College, and her father, Colonel John M. Fleming, had served on the board of trustees. Her husband, brother, and son were all alumni.
She served as president of the Tennessee Federation of Music Clubs (1918–19) and was a member of the board of the National Federation of Music Clubs. She was also president of the Chattanooga Writers’ Club, a member of the DAR, a member of the State Press and Authors’ Club, president of the Dixie District of Music Clubs (Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama), an originator of the Tuesday Morning Music Club in Knoxville and of the McDowell Club in Chattanooga. She sang in the choir at Second Presbyterian Church in Knoxville and was active in its Women’s Auxiliary. In 1896 she married John Lamar Meek, an official of the Southern Railway. They lived in Atlanta and then Chattanooga, moving back to Knoxville in January 1929. She died June 9, 1929, while she was in the midst of assembling her songs and poems for a book. The UT “Alma Mater” was her last composition.