She trained as a sculptor with Ralph Stackpole and Alexander Archipenko, working in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and San Francisco between 1930 and 1945.
Born in Newton, New Jersey and raised in Tucson, Arizona, where her father was rector of Grace Episcopal Church, Mary Tuthill showed talent in art, writing, and acting.
At the age of 14, upset over a news photograph of a lynching, Mary Tuthill joined the NAACP, and from then on was an ardent political and social activist.
Her first major exhibition was a juried group show at Transigram Studios in Los Angeles, where she won an Award of Merit.
In the summer of 1946, Lindheim entered the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland to study with ceramist Antonio Prieto.
She was a co-founder of Designer-Craftsmen of California, and for many years participated as an installation designer, juror and/or planner of the Sausalito Art Fair.
From 1946 to 1969 both her ceramics and her sculptural wall panels and mosaics employing magnesite, sand, metal, stones, and pebbles were widely exhibited and won many awards.
In 1969, she moved to Bolinas, a coastal community in west Marin County, and continued to pursue her art, but at a slower pace.