Mary Francis Shura

Mary Francis Shura Craig (née Young; 23 February 1923 – 12 January 1991) was an American writer of over 50 novels from 1960 to 1990. She wrote children's adventures and young adult romances as Mary Francis Shura, M. F. Craig, and Meredith Hill; gothic novels as Mary Craig; romance novels as Alexis Hill, Mary Shura Craig and Mary S. Craig; and suspense novels as M. S. Craig.

She was a recipient of the Carl Sandburg Literary Arts Award in 1985, and was elected president of the Mystery Writers of America in 1990.

Biography Born Mary Francis Young on 23 February 1923 in Pratt, Kansas, she was the daughter of Jackson Fant Young and Mary Francis Milstead.

On 24 October 1943, she married Daniel Charles Shura, with whom she had three children: Marianne Francis Shura (later Sprague), an Episcopal priest; Daniel Charles Shura; and Alice Barrett Shura (later Stout). Following her husband's death in 1959, she married Raymond C. Craig on 8 December 1961. They had one daughter, Shay Craig, currently Bishop of North Dakota, before they divorced.

On 12 January 1991, she died of injuries suffered in a fire in her apartment on 13 December 1990.