A portrait photograph of Mary Channing Coleman. Mary Channing Coleman was born on July 11, 1883, in South Boston, Virginia. She completed a two-year teacher course at the Female Normal School in Farmville, Virginia, and taught for two years in the same area. In 1908, she entered the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics, where she worked with Amy Morris Homans, the school's director and a pioneer in American women's physical education. After completing a two-year course with BNSG, Coleman became the head of physical education at Winthrop College, Rock Hill. In 1920, Coleman became the director of physical education at the State Normal and Industrial School of North Carolina. She administered the physical education program there for 27 years and oversaw the creation of the first program for professional preparation of physical education teachers in North Carolina and co-founded the North Carolina High School Girls Athletic Association. Coleman wrote "Lessons in Physical Education for Elementary Grade and in 1921 organized and became president of the first physical education society in the state. In 1932 she was the first woman president of the Southern Section of the American Physical Education Association; she was vice-president and then second woman president of the American Physical Education Association in 1933 and 1934 Mary C. Coleman passed on October 1, 1947 at the age of 64.
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