Mary Jeanette Munce was born to Clara DeMotte Munce and Charles C. Munce in 1907 in Bloomington. She earned a bachelors from Illinois Wesleyan University, where her grandfather DeMotte had once been a vice president. Later she received a masters degree from University of Illinois at Urbana. She taught at Piper City and then taught Latin at Bloomington High School for forty years before retiring in 1972. Mary Jeanette organized the James Knowles Chapter of the Children of the American Revolution (CAR). She died in 1982.

Mary Jeanette had a brother named Charles and a younger sister named Margaret Munce Campbell (1912-2008.) Margaret graduated Illinois Wesleyan University in 1933 where she was also a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma. She wed Glen H. Campbell in 1941. She served on the board of the Lucy Orme Morgan Home for Girls.

Mary Jeanette and Margaret’s mother, Clara DeMotte Munce (1876-1954), also attended IWU, joined Kappa Kappa Gamma, and later served on the board of the Girls’ Industrial Home as well as being an active member of the Amateur Music Club and an officer in the DAR.