August 24, 1929

Mary Victor (M. V.) Mayfield died. Mayfield came to Mena (Polk County) in 1918 and practiced medicine with the identity of a man for seven or eight years. A small, kind, and peaceful citizen, Mayfield soon became “the cancer doctor.” Mayfield put Mena in the national news for the events of January 23, 1926, when it was revealed by the news media that Mayfield had the biological characteristics of a female. Mayfield was buried in Gann Cemetery, south of Mena, as a pauper in an unmarked grave, and, as Mayfield had wished, in men’s clothing, with the service performed by a woman, Fannie Vise.