IMNX FM Notable Radio presents Echoes of Us — narrated by Alicia Lacey — telling the true story of Mary Fields, a former slave turned stagecoach mail carrier in 1800s Montana.

When a blizzard stranded her and her wagon, Mary refused to abandon the mail, walking ten miles through knee-deep snow to deliver every letter, proving courage, duty, and the strength of a Black woman in a hostile frontier.

Welcome to IMNX FM notable radio where we will bring you our series of echoes of us, which are short stories, um, told by African Americans throughout the world who want you to hear their echoes. Our 1st episode is called The Night Mary Fields Walked. 10 miles through the snow. And keep in mind, this original narration is written for our podcast. 
My name is Alicia Lacy and I am one of the narrators for this series. I want you to imagine Montana in the late 1800s, a place where the wind didn't just blow. It cut. 
A place where the snow didn't fall, it claimed, and in the middle of all that cold, all that emptiness, there was a black woman named Mary Fields. 6 feet tall, 200 pounds, born in slavery, in Tennessee, and somehow, through grit, and God, and pure, stubborn will, she ended up becoming the 1st black woman to carry U.S. mail on a stagecoach route. But the story I want to tell you isn't just about her job. It's about one night, the night that made her a legend. 
Mary was hauling mail through the mountains when a blizzard rolled in. The kind of storm that makes the world disappear. Her horses panicked, the wagon slid, and before she knew it, she was stuck miles from shelter. 
Miles from help and miles from anyone who even knew she was out there. Most people would have prayed. Mary cursed. 
She grabbed every sack of mail because she refused to let a single letter get lost, and she walked and walked. 10 miles in snow up to her knees. And boots that were never meant for the kind of cold that she was trapped in. She walked until breath felt like broken glass and her fingers stopped listening to her. 
But she kept going. And when she finally reached the station, half frozen, covered in ice, dragged and dragged all those bags of mail with her. Behind her, like they were her own children. 
The men inside just stared. One of them said, Mary, how did you make it? And she said, the mail was due. 
That's it. No drama, no bragging. Just duty. 
Mary Fields didn't live her life to be a symbol. She didn't care about being the 1st or the only. She cared about doing the job, protecting the people she loved, and proving every single day that a black woman could survive anything this country threw at her. 
And that night, in the middle of Montana's, heavy blizzard, she proved it. Her name is Alicia Lacy, and you are listening to our series called Echoes of Us.