Mary Lou Brandes was born in Southern California and learned to drive at the age of 12 in the sand dunes of Glamis and Pismo Beach. After putting herself through college driving a cement mixer and marrying Jay Allen Gregory Brandes she attended graduate school and had two children, one born in Washington DC, and home educated. She ran for Savannah Mayor and President of the United States in an effort to become important enough for her son to gain entry into private high school and also to help finance that.
During her run for offices she was arrested and charged with running for president after her husband, now a full professor of Oceanography, became unsure and filed for divorce.
Years later when she was working she met Bayside Lucas in the comments section of The Hill newspaper and he convinced her to publicly tell him her story which had graciously, she thinks, been expunged.