Mary Richards was born on December 29, 1936. She was born and raised in Roseburg, Minnesota. Mary is the daughter of Walter Reed Richards and Dottie Richards.After she left a long term relationship, she moved to Minneapolis where she ran into an old friend, Phyllis Lindstrom, who was the landlady of a huge house and had signed a year's lease for her to have one of the best apartments in the house. Mary met a woman who lived in the building, Rhoda Morganstern. Mary and Rhoda became best friends, to Phyllis's dismay. She also had a bond with Phyllis's daughter, Bess.Mary applied for a secretarial job at a television station, WJM-TV, the Twin Cities' lowest rated station. She met with news producer Lou Grant, who hated her spunk, but hired her anyway. The secretarial position was filled, so Mary was hired as associate producer, a job for which she was not qualified, and which paid less money than she would have made as a secretary. She quickly became friends with news writer Murray Slaughter, who in time came to adore her. She was even friends with the very vain (and very incompetent) news anchor, Ted Baxter. In fact, Ted got along better with Mary than anyone else in the news room.Mary often was the voice of reason, but that didn't help her whenever she threw parties. Her parties were always unqualified disasters, and were legendary in Minneapolis.After almost four years of living in Phyllis' apartment house, she moved into a new high-rise apartment. While living there, Mary made friends with next-door neighbor, Paula Kovaks. Other friends of Mary's included Homemaking expert, Sue Ann Nivens and Georgette Franklin, who married Ted in her new apartment. Eventually, Mary was promoted to News Producer, while Lou became the station's news director.In 1977, Mary, along with Lou, Murray and Sue Ann, lost their jobs in an effort to boost the news' sagging ratings. Ted, ironically, had kept his job, despite the fact that it was he who was the primary cause for the news cast's low ratings.Some years later, she did end up moving to New York and got her master's degree in journalism, married a congressman (Steven Cronin), worked for ABC News, and had a daughter, Rose, whom she was very proud of. Her seven years of work at WJM-TV had paid off handsomely.After her husband's death, she returned to New York and reconnected, happily, with her best friend, Rhoda, who, by this time, had had a daughter of her own, named Meredith.Mary still resides in New York, living close to her best friend Rhoda. Show less «