Mary Wolf Wilkinson Streep (July 30, 1915 – September 29, 2001) was an American fine-artist and art editor. Her daughter is actress Meryl Streep. Life and career Born Mary Wolf Wilkinson in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Mary Agnes (née Wolf; 1886-1976) and Harry Rockefellow Wilkinson. She grew up in Madison, New Jersey, graduating from Madison High School, she then studied fine art at the Art Students League in New York. Streep trained as a fine artist and became the art-editor for Home Furnishings Magazine and also did commercial artwork on a freelance basis. Mary had an art studio in the back of her home. She married pharmaceutical company executive Harry Wilbur Streep Jr. (1909-2003) They had a daughter, Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep, and two sons, Dana Streep and Harry Wilbur Streep III (husband of actress Maeve Kinkead). She is also the grandmother of Streep's children, musician Henry Wolfe, actresses Mamie Gummer and Grace Gummer, and model Louisa Gummer. Her son-in-law, Don Gummer, is also an artist, a sculptor. Her daughter Meryl Streep has often stated in interviews that her mother has been the inspiration for some of her characters she has played on the screen. Mary enrolled her daughter in voice lessons at the age of twelve after noticing her daughter's need to perform. Death Streep died at Cornell Medical Center from complications of heart disease after a short illness. Her husband died two years later on July 22, 2003, aged 92. They were residents of Mason's Island, Connecticut. References External links Mary Wilkinson Streep on Find A Grave 1915 births 2001 deaths Art Students League of New York alumni American magazine editors 20th-century American painters 20th-century American printmakers 20th-century American women artists American women painters American women printmakers Artists from Brooklyn Painters from New Jersey Painters from New York City People from Madison, New Jersey Women magazine editors Madison High School (New Jersey) alumni Meryl Streep