Mary "Mamie" J. Dillard (September 10, 1874 – November 25, 1954) was an American educator, clubwoman and suffragist.

[3] In 1896 she received a bachelor's degree from Kansas University and went on to start her career as a teacher at the segregated Pinckney Elementary School in Lawrence.

[4] One of her students in the early twentieth century was Langston Hughes, whom she befriended and corresponded with for years after he left Kansas.

[1] One letter between Hughes and Dillard survives and can be found in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in New Haven, Connecticut.

[2] From 1909 to 1913, Dillard attended graduate school at the University of Kansas where she studied English and special education.