• Native of Rockford, Illinois and educated in the Rockford Public Schools.  Graduate of the University of Illinois, majoring in journalism.  Post graduate studies at Northwestern University.  She and her husband Wayne Cowlishaw resided in Naperville.   They have 3 children.

    She served on the Naperville District 203 Board of Education from 1972 to 1983.  Prior to election to the General Assembly in November 1982, was a member of the editorial staff of the Naperville SUN newspaper.  Author of a book, catalogued in the Library of Congress, about the history of the Naperville Municipal Band.  She held membership in many organizations.  To name a few:  the National Conference of State Legislatures, National Republican Legislators Association, National Federation of Republican Women, and League of Women Voters of Naperville.  She also serves on the Education Advisory Committee of Congressman Harris Fawell.

    Honored by the naming of a new elementary school in 1997 in Indian Prairie School District 204 as the "Mary Lou Cowlishaw Elementary School".  Listed in the Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the Middle West, and Who's Who Among American Women.

    Mrs. Mary Lou Cowlishaw passed away on June 23, 2010 at age 78.