Mary K. Shell

Who is Mary K. Shell?

Mary Katherine Jaynes Shell, previously Mary Hosking, usually known as Mary K. Shell, is the first woman to have served as mayor of Bakersfield, California and only the second woman to have served on the Kern County Board of Supervisors. At the time of her retirement from public office, Shell was termed by the Bakersfield Californian as "the most popular politician in Kern County history." She is the widow of Joseph C. Shell, Sr., a former Republican minority leader of the California State Assembly from Los Angeles, Richard M. Nixon's intraparty opponent for governor in 1962, and a lawmaker who fought to bring water to southern California in the 1960s.