Lasker attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison and graduated from Radcliffe College with a major in Art History.

[4] Her second marriage was to Lord and Thomas advertising executive Albert Lasker until his death in the early 1950s of colon cancer.

[13] In 1970, Congress passed a law banning the advertising of cigarettes on television, so the anti-smoking commercials likewise went off the air.

[15] Lasker was prominent in lobbying Eleanor Roosevelt to endorse Lyndon Johnson's efforts to become the 1960 Democratic nominee.

[16] Lady Bird Johnson wrote about Lasker numerous times in her book A White House Diary, calling her house "charming ... like a setting for jewels" and thanking her for gifts of daffodil bulbs for parkways along the Potomac River and for thousands of azalea bushes, flowering dogwood and other plants to put along Pennsylvania Avenue.

Mary Lasker's appointment to the Braniff board was rare and she joined a very small group of women who were directors at large American corporations.

On May 14, 2009 the United States Postal Service honored Lasker with the issuance of a stamp of face value 78 cents, designed by Mark Summers.