In 1990, Mead was the Republican nominee for governor, defeated in the general election by the incumbent Democrat Mike Sullivan of Douglas in Converse County in southeastern Wyoming.
[3][4] She married Peter Bradford Mead (born 1933), who coincidentally partly bears the same name as her father, brother, and grandfather.
[5] She lived on the Mead Ranch, officially the "Lower Bar BC", which prior to its sale – for more than $100 million – was one of the largest pastoral private holdings in Teton County.
[6] By December 2001, the Lower Bar BC had become no longer economically productive and surrendered its 2,000-acre (8.1 km2) lease in Grand Teton Park.
[4] Her other children are Bradford Scott "Brad" Mead (born July 24, 1957) and Muffy Mead-Ferro, an author in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Her children established the dual Mary Mead Memorial Scholarship and Graduate Fellowship for Women in Agriculture at the University of Wyoming.