[4] She completed a special advanced course of study in Mathematics at Johns Hopkins University in 1917 before serving as a schoolteacher.
[2][6] In 1917, she moved to Eden Manor, the Watters family dairy farm, a property her mother inherited in Jarrettsville.
[2] She sided with the "wet forces" and served on the Senate Temperance Committee and spoke out against Prohibition.
[11] Concurrent to her role as a legislator, she served as the first woman on the Maryland State Board of Education for 16 years.
[12] The Mary E. W. Risteau Multi Services Center, a district court building in Bel Air, Maryland was named in her honor.