Margaret Marty Mann (October 15, 1904 – July 22, 1980) is considered by some to be the first woman with longterm sobriety in Alcoholics Anonymous. There were several remarkable women in the early days of AA including but not limited to: Florence R. of New York, Sylvia K. of Chicago, Ethel M. of Akron, Ohio. AA co-founder Bill Wilson was Marty's sponsor. Marty wrote her Story(personal experience) "Women Suffer Too" in the Story Section of second through fourth editions of the Big Book of AA. Mann organized the National Committee for Education on Alcoholism (NCEA) in 1944, which later became the National Council on Alcoholism (NCA), and then the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD), to address concern with other drugs. She traveled across the U.S. educating medical professionals legislators, businessmen and the public to the importance of treatment and education of the fatal disease of alcoholism. In 1976 the NCA organized Operation Understanding where 50 celebrities and professionals gathered to address the social stigma surrounding alcoholism. Actors, politicians, sports legends, physicians, lawyers, clergy and more stood up in the hotel ballroom and said "I am an alcoholic." The NCA hoped to reduce the social stigma surrounding alcoholism and encourage individuals and their family to get treatment. Marty hoped to raise social awareness that alcoholism is not a moral weakness but a deadly disease. Background Marty Mann came from an upper-middle-class family in Chicago. She attended private schools, traveled extensively, and was a debutante. Mann's father, once a top executive at the most prestigious department store in downtown Chicago, died of alcoholism. Marty was married briefly in her 20s but was a lesbian for the rest of her life. Mann was her maiden name, and she used the Mrs. title to protect her privacy. Society's prejudice against homosexuality was as strong as it was toward alcoholism during the 1940s and 1950s when she and the National Committee for Education on Alcoholism were struggling to survive. Mann moved to England in 1930 and fell in love with photographer Barbara Ker-Seymer. The Tate Museum in London has photographs detailing their social circle. British photographer and society figure, considered one of the group designated by the tabloid press as 'Bright Young People'. They visited the Paris salon of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. She also socialized with Janet Flanner, Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West. Marty worked as a magazine editor,