Mary J. Butler (b. Phillips) (1835-1917) was born in New York and died in Denver, Colorado. She married Frederick J. Butler in Buffalo, New York. He was a cashier and a stove agent. Around 1880 they moved to Denver where Butler's husband became a hotelkeeper. After her husband's death in 1886 she went to live in the household of her daughter Grace A. Hale (b. Butler). Butler studied Christian Science with Bradford Sherman and Emma Curtis Hopkins, both of whom were students of Mary Baker Eddy, and she served as the president of a school in Denver focused on Hopkins's teachings. Butler wrote to Eddy expressing interest in studying with her directly, but the available records do not indicate that she did so. She joined The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, on June 5, 1914, and was also a member of First Church of Christ, Scientist, Denver.

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