Big Sound from Decatur
Born with a song in her heart, she has a story to tell.
She’s a tiny little thing, that Mary Cogan, the youngest of five children brought up in a family with good manners and high standards. Her father was a grade-school principal, her mother a former nun who never missed an opportunity to counsel her daughter to be independent.
“She drilled it into my head, emphasizing things like keep your own name, always have your own credit card. She was very forward-thinking, especially for an ex-nun!” Mary mused. “She was the matriarch of the family, and she loved every holiday, decorating like mad for Easter, Christmas, St. Patrick’s Day, and Halloween. And she had the greatest sense of humor.”
Mary Kathleen Cogan was called Teeny Bird at home, Teeny Mary by her mother. She was cheerleader and Homecoming Queen, and always wanted to sing.
“I used to flounce around the house singing into my hairbrush-microphone.”
She sang at church and she sang with her high school choir, The Songsters, who performed show tunes.
“On Fridays, we would go to Curly’s for fish, and I always ended up singing Karaoke there.”
After Southern Illinois University, Mary started thinking about work—not just any old job, but a career. “I wanted to be taken seriously.”
She headed south for Oklahoma City and eventually inched back north along Route 66 to Tulsa, the heart of Green Country, where she stayed, married the love of her life and now has two beautiful boys, whom she adores. She maintains her serious career as a pharmaceutical representative.
“I love Tulsa.The city is so beautiful, and the people here are so warm and friendly.”
And Tulsa loves Mary. One night her friends prodded her to get up and sing with Mark Bruner and Shelby Eichert at a popular bar. It was a slow night, and the musicians said sure, why not.
Singing Alison Kraus’ “When You Say Nothing at All,” she brought the small, wildly- applauding crowd to their feet. Bruner and Eichert asked her to sing The Beatles’ “I Will” with them, and eventually, she began to appear with them at local gigs.
Just that one fateful night made her childhood dreams come true.
In no time at all, word of her singing spread through the city, and fans followed her from performance to performance. She was in such high demand that she had to curtail appearances to keep up with her career.
She steps up to the stage like a surreptitious child peeking at Christmas presents, but when she starts to sing, the trees settle and the birds stop to listen.
Indeed, Mary has been taken seriously. She has opened for some of the biggest names in music, including Jefferson Starship, Rita Coolidge, The Little River Band, Chely Wright, David Gates, and Billy Dean, Cowboy Junkies in Durango, and at Tulsa’s historic Cain’s Ballroom, Keith Anderson.
In Nashville, she found a new crowd of fans at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge. Nashville can be tough on new music acts, but she returned by invitation to Tootsie’s many times.