Editing Mary Louise Smith (activist) (section)

==Later years==
Little information is available about her personal life. She married Mr. Ware and they had children together. 

Smith followed the civil rights movement, but were not actively part of the political organization. She did attend the 1963 [[March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom|March on Washington]].<ref name="Time not going to stand">{{cite news |last1=Waxman |first1=Olivia |title='I Was Not Going to Stand.' Rosa Parks Predecessors Recall Their History-Making Acts of Resistance |url=https://time.com/5786220/claudette-colvin-mary-louise-smith/ |publisher=Time |date=March 2, 2020}}</ref>

In 1969, Smith and her sister allowed their sons to become plaintiffs in a racial discrimination lawsuit against the Montgomery YMCA. Lawyer [[Morris Dees]] represented their suit, which called out the YMCA for not allowing her and her sister's children into their summer camp program. <ref name="dees">{{Cite book|title=A Lawyer's Journey: The Morris Dees Story|url=https://archive.org/details/lawyersjourney00dees|url-access=registration|last=Dees|first=Morris|publisher=American Bar Association Publications|year=2001|isbn=1570739943|location=Chicago|pages=[https://archive.org/details/lawyersjourney00dees/page/108 108]–12, 131–33}}</ref><ref name="SPL">{{Cite news|url=https://www.splcenter.org/seeking-justice/case-docket/smith-v-young-mens-christian-association|title=Smith v. Young Men's Christian Association|newspaper=Southern Poverty Law Center|access-date=2016-10-22}}</ref> In 1972, the U.S. District court ruled in their favor and ended segregation at the YMCA as well as voided remaining segregation ordinances in the city.<ref name="Montgomery Advertiser">{{cite news |last1=Gladden |first1=Alex |title=Montgomery honors Smith family for their role in ending segregation |url=https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/local/2023/05/22/city-acknowledges-large-role-smith-family-played-in-civil-rights/70237188007/ |publisher=Montgomery Advertiser |date=May 22, 2023}}</ref>

Smith is active with her 12 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren.<ref name="Patton Coll">{{cite web |last1=Patton |first1=Gwen |title=Montgomery Bus Boycott — Biographic Sketches |url=https://www.crmvet.org/info/mbbbios.htm |website=Dr. Gwen Patton Collection, Trenholm State College Archives |access-date=21 June 2023}}</ref> She still lives in Montgomery, Alabama, and her older sister lives across the street.<ref name="WBHM" />

When Rosa Parks died in October 2005, Smith Ware, then 68, attended the memorial service in Montgomery. "I had to pay my tribute to her, [s]he was our role model."<ref name="Chicago Tribune">{{cite web|title=Other heroes of bus boycott|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2005/11/16/other-heroes-of-bus-boycott/|website=chicagotribune.com|access-date=12 March 2015}}</ref>