Mary’s adult life, one of her great joys was traveling to Oklahoma to visit her relatives who had moved to Oklahoma from Kansas. Each year Mary stayed in the home of her Uncle Bertram N. O. Walker and Aunt Mary (Mrs. Isaiah) Walker. Mr. B. N. O. Walker, a member of the Big Turtle clan, was a bachelor and one of the tribe’s most colorful and talented persons. He was an avid storyteller, poet, singer, musician and businessman. Using his Wyandotte name, “Hen-Toh,” he wrote two books – “Tales of the Bark Lodges” and “Nubbins.” Evenings spent in his home would have been filled with wonderful conversation and traditional stories of Old Fox and Old Coon, Rabbit, Beaver, Otter and other animal characters.
In 1911, Mary met anthropologist Marius Barbeau. Mr. Barbeau was interested in interviewing Mary about her knowledge of the Wyandot people and in particular recording her use of the Wyandot language. In August 1912, Mary told Mr. Barbeau some of the old stories, and sang him some Wyandot songs which he recorded on wax cylinders. He also photographed her outside her home in Amherstburg, Essex County, Ontario. In 1912, she sold Mr. Barbeau her all Wyandot artifacts for $60. Mary was described by Mr. Barbeau as “a refined Wyandot, aged 73, belonging to Anderdon Township, Essex County, Ontario, and one of the very last to speak the language of her nation on the Detroit River.”
By 1914, Mary had become too feeble to make her annual journey to Oklahoma, so she sold to her house to Annie Splitlog Gibb and moved permanently to the home of B. N. O. Walker in Oklahoma. Her house remained in the Gibb family for many years. It was modernized over the years and at one time was jacked up, had a basement put under it, and windows cut through its log walls. In 1949, Mary’s official document granting her 50 acres of the Anderdon Reserve was in the possession of Norman Gibb, son of Annie Splitlog Gibb. In recent years, it was in the possession of Annie’s grandson, Russell Dupuis. From Oklahoma, Mary wrote to friends in Canada, principally a Mrs. Eno in Windsor, Ontario.
Besides leaving her recordings and photographs, Mary McKee left a recipe for salve. It is as follows:
Mary McKee’s Salve – Good for Man or Beast?
_ lb. of butter without salt
_1/3 lb. of rosin
_ lb. of beeswax
_ ounce of Camphor or cake
_ ounce of Alum
_ lb. common soap (yellow)
Green Salve – add
_1/8 ounce Blue Vitrol to the above recpt.
Mary McKee died in Oklahoma on June 11, 1922. She is buried near Wyandotte, Oklahoma, in the Walker family cemetery on the hill near the highway. Her grave is unmarked. The small cemetery where she is buried is fenced, very pretty, and on private property.