Piano teacher, of Lexington, Va. Personal correspondence from and about the author, Carson (Smith) McCullers, piano student of Mrs. Tucker in Columbus, Ga., and lifelong friend. Topics include McCullers' personal life, marital problems, and poor health. Mrs. Tucker was the wife of Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston Tucker.

The Mary Sames Tucker Papers are dated from 1936 to 1967, and are divided into two series, the Correspondence Series and the Printed Materials and Clippings Series. The bulk of the first series consists of letters written by Carson McCullers to her former piano teacher, Mary Tucker. They reveal the closeness of the relationship between the two women (Tucker is often referred to as a 'foster mother'). Other letters are addressed to Carson's husband Reeves; her mother, Marguerite Smith; and her physician and longtime friend, Mary E. Mercer. Together, the correspondence documents the writer's relationships, marital problems, and especially the suffering caused by her chronic poor health. The Printed Materials and Clippings Series contains several clippings of obituaries that appeared in newspapers after the death of McCullers and a booklet published by the Empire Theatre.