Photo: No photographer credited — Public domainSource
Lillian Mayfield Wright
poet · writer
- February 26, 1986
- 91 years
About Lillian Mayfield Wright
Lillian Mayfield Wright, 91, American poet.
Explore other notable deaths in 1986 or deaths in February 1986.
The Deaths Archive presents
How well do you know Lillian Mayfield Wright?
Explore their life. Test your knowledge. Beat the challenge.
10 questions · One legacy · How much do you really know?
Challenge your friends
Play together in real-time.
Advertisement
Full Biography
|Lillian Perry Mayfield Roberts Wright (October 24, 1894 – February 26, 1986) was an American poet.
Early life and education
Lillian Perry Mayfield was born in Conaway, West Virginia, the daughter of Joshua Grant Mayfield and Florence May Carter Mayfield. She attended West Virginia Wesleyan College and New York University, and studied with poet Joyce Kilmer.
Publications
Many of her poems and stories were published in national magazines under the name Lillian Mayfield Roberts. "The best of these mountain poets is Lillian Mayfield Roberts," commented H. L. Mencken in The American Mercury in 1926. One of her poems, "Hill Hunger", was included in the anthology Modern American Lyrics (1924). Her short story "The Fly on the Window" won $1000 from the West Virginia Review.
- "The Prayer" (1918)
- "Clarksburg Season Opens" (1919)
- "The Professor's Wife" (1921)
- "Skies are so High" (1921)
- "Tomorrow" (1921)
- "Requiem for Dead Hopes" (1921)
- "Retrospect" (1922)
- "If (for the Wife)" (1922)
- "In the Market" (1923)
- "Home" (1925)
- "Zinnias" (1927)
- "Mountain Medicine" (1964)
Personal life and legacy
Lillian Mayfield married twice. Her first husband was George Paul Roberts; they married in 1916, and divorced in 1928. Her second husband, John J. Wright, was a public health professor at the University of North Carolina; they married in 1930. She died in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 1986, aged 91 years. West Virginia University holds a collection of Wright's notebooks, including the manuscript of an unpublished novel at the West Virginia & Regional History Center.
Content from Wikipedia — licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
Interactive
Test Your Knowledge – Trivia Challenge
How well do you know this person's life and legacy?
No account needed to play. Sign in to keep your score on the leaderboard.
Books & Media
Find books, audiobooks and films about Lillian Mayfield Wright on Amazon.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.
Sources
- Wikipedia
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillian_Mayfield_Wright
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Sep 26, 2026
- View article
- View record
- October 27, 2026
- Sep 26, 2026
People who died on February 26
Related People
Spotted an error?
Help us keep the archive accurate. Report a correction with a source.
Report an error for Lillian Mayfield Wright →Advertisement