irmingham’s historic and prestigious high rise The Altamont was once home to Mary Harmon Black Bryant, wife of legendary University of Alabama football Coach Paul Bear Bryant. Through the years Mary Harmon had other ties to the Magic City.

Mary Harmon Black.

Born in Troy in 1915, to Ida Mae Harmon and James Henderson Black, Mary Harmon moved to The Altamont at 2827 Highland Avenue with her mother and stepfather Martin C. Folmar, who was the Canada Life Assurance Company’s southern manager. The family lived in Apartment 201, in the late 1920s and early ‘30s.

The Folmars’ fellow apartment dwellers in 1925 included many prominent names in the history of Birmingham: Mrs. Lillie Sloss, White Woodward, C.W. Drennen, Cunningham Wilson and H.P. Hanna. In 1931 residents included Hollye Sington, J.E. Rains, J.I. Freeman, Joseph Nadler, Julian Loeb, T.J. York, Mark B. Eiseman, Mena Sterne, Sada Pope, R.E. Mitchell and J.H. Ulrick, and in 1932, William Nappi of Nappi’s Orchestra and Leslie E. Wright were residents.

The Altamont’s ground floor lobby during that period was conveniently adjacent to a dining room, deli, beauty salon, florist and cleaners and dyers.

Phillips High School Senior Mary Harmon is pictured as a senior in Birmingham’s Phillips High School’s 1931 yearbook "The Mirror." Football was a popular sport, and it undoubtedly influenced Mary Harmon’s perception of the players. Phillips alumnus and UA’s All American tackle Freddie Sington Sr. wrote the annual’s introduction on the importance of athletics, "a field which sends healthy, intelligent, loyal leaders to take up citizenship cannot be over emphasized too much in this day of self government."

Sington had played football for the Crimson Tide on the 1928, ‘29 and ‘30 teams. His son Fred Sington Jr. played football for Coach Bear Bryant’s first 1958 UA and ‘59 teams. Mary Harmon’s future husband played the "other end" on Coach Frank Thomas’ 1933, ‘34 and ‘35 UA football teams.

Before attending UA, Mary Harmon graduated from Arlington Hall Junior College in Arlington, Va.

At UA Mary Harmon was a Corolla beauty, honorary cadet colonel of the Cadet Corps, member of Alpha Gamma Delta sorority and Bear Bryant’s sponsor at the Jan. 1, 1935 Rose Bowl, where the 1934 UA team beat Stanford.

Bryant once described Mary Harmon as "The best looking gal you or I ever laid eyes on, and she had an automobile."

Secretly Married

Mary Harmon and Bear Bryant secretly married June 2, 1935, in Ozark, so Paul wouldn’t lose his UA football scholarship. She graduated from UA that year, and he graduated in 1936, the year their daughter Mae Martin Bryant was born.

When Bear Bryant returned to UA as head football coach from 1958 to 1982, the home games brought Mary Harmon back to Birmingham as they were played at Legion Field. She always rode on the second bus or third Blue darter bus to the games, so she could talk with the third string players. She was known as the players second mom, as she provided a buffer between them and the fierce disciplinarian coach. She helped them write letters to their families and often entertained them at the Bryant home.

Son Paul William Bryant Jr. was born in 1942 after Bear enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1941. While Bear served during World War II aboard the SS Uruguay in 1943, Mary Harmon and the children lived with her parents.

When Paul was head coach for the University of Maryland football team in 1945, Mary Harmon lived in Birmingham most of the time, but moved with Bear to his head coaching positions at the University of Kentucky in 1946–1953 and Texas A&M University, 1954–1957.

Mary Harmon had lots of friends in the Magic City and was listed in 1976–77 Junior League of Birmingham directory as a sustaining member.

The only wife of the onetime "winningest coach" in collegiate football history with 323 wins passed away in Tuscaloosa in 1984 at a young 68. It was just a year after Bear Bryant died at 69 in Tuscaloosa. Mary Harmon is buried near Bear Bryant in Birmingham’s Elmwood Cemetery.

The Bryants’ late daughter Mae Martin Tyson’s son Marc Tyson and his wife Lissa are now raising their family in Birmingham.

Mary Bryant