Mary K. Shell - Early Years, Family, Journalism

Early Years, Family, Journalism

Shell was the younger of two daughters born in Bakersfield to Walter Jaynes (1897–1972) and the former Mary Ellen Young (1897–1990). Shell's paternal grandfather, Harris E. Jaynes, arrived in Bakersfield about 1900 to work as a welder for the Southern Pacific Railroad. He opened a welding shop which evolved into H. E. Jaynes and Son, an automobile repair business on Chester Street. Mary K., also called "Miki" by her family and friends, worked in the shop, doing chores traditionally associated with males. She recalls servicing a Buick when news of the D-Day landings in Normandy of June 6, 1944 were announced by radio. She demonstrated a youthful interest in current events, journalism, and politics. She was the editor of the student newspapers at Washington Junior High School and East Bakersfield High School. She was also a song leader and secretary to the student council. Shell said that so many extracurricular activities kept her from being an "A" student.

Shell attended Bakersfield College, a public community college, but dropped out a semester shy of receiving her associate's degree. She is a donor to the college and a member of its foundation board. Instead she worked part-time at the Bakersfield Californian newspaper, where at the age of seventeen she had been the "cub" reporter on the farm beat. She soon learned that city officials were making most decisions over lunch at the Hotel El Tejon (now the site of the Bank of America building in Bakersfield) and then routinely approving what had been decided at council meetings. This was long before the era of "open meetings" laws, known in California as the Ralph M. Brown Act. Shell had taken flying lessons while she worked as a flight dispatcher at La Cresta Airfield near the Panorama Bluffs of Bakersfield.