As a member of the Board of Lady Managers of the World's Columbian Commission, and as chair of the Committee on Congresses, she was selected as editor of the papers read.

Her father, a leading stock-farmer in the Blue Grass region,[1] was the son of Kie Oldham and Polly Kavanaugh and a native and resident of Madison county.

Her mother, who died 11 July 1880, was the daughter of Ira Brown and Frances Mullens, of Albemarle County, Virginia, and of Scotch-English heritage.

Eagle attended Mrs Julia A. Tivis's school, Science Hill, Shelbyville, Kentucky, where she distinguished herself in all her classes.

[2] She spent the winter of 1885 in the city of Little Rock, Arkansas, her husband being a member of the General Assembly and Speaker of the House at that session.

[5] On the recommendation of Col. John D. Adams, democratic commissioner, Eagle was appointed as a member of the Board of Lady Managers of the World's Columbian Exposition.

At the conclusion of the exposition, she was chosen to edit the many papers presented at the congresses, and the result of her work was the publication of two volumes of 824 pages, with the caption: "The Congress of Women, held in the Women's Building, World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, United States of America, 1893, in two volumes, with portraits, biographies and addresses, published by authority of the board of lady managers, Mrs. Bertha Honore Palmer, president, edited b Mary Kavanaugh Oldham Eagle, Chairman of the committee on Congress of the Board of Lady Managers.

Shortly thereafter, her husband published A brief memoir of Mary K. Eagle : with tributes from her friends (Little Rock, Press of Arkansas Democrat Company, 1903).