Arkansas native Mary Jane Curtis Noble grew up in southeast Oklahoma and graduated from Idabel High School before graduating from the University of Oklahoma in 1946. Almost simultaneously, she married Sam Noble and worked as a secretary for the Dean of Women at OU while her husband finished his degree. She worked as secretary for the Department of Economics, History, Administration, and Russian Civilization at Dartmouth College while her husband pursued another degree. The couple settled in Ardmore, Oklahoma, and Mrs. Noble became a home executive and the mother of four children, all the while serving on civic, community, and church organizations as she supported her growing children’s activities. She served on the boards of several state and private agencies concerned with substance abuse or health-related problems, and maintained an active role in the Episcopal Church. She was honored as Citizen of the Year in Ardmore in 1983 and received an honorary Ph.D. from OU, where she was appointed to a six-year term on the Board of Regents by Governor Frank Keating in 1996. The following year she was named Distinguished Alumni from OU’s College of Business and in 1998, on behalf of the Noble Family, accepted the Clare Boothe Luce Award, the Heritage Foundation’s highest honor given only four times previously in its 25 years.