Vivian P. Mayers (née Haines), painter, printmaker and sculptor, was born on 10 January 1909 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her parents were Charles J. and Pauline Haines. Her father was head proof reader for the Minneapolis Tribune and was a member of the Minneapolis Typographical Union. Vivian attended Central High School in Minneapolis and excelled in sports.

Vivian Haines was eighteen-years-of-age when she married Leo Mayers and they lived in Bellwood, Illinois. For the purpose of the census, Vivian is always listed as a housekeeper but she must have studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Ethel Spears and Kathleen Blackshear were both teachers there and the three women produced the portfolio, Prints, which contained color screenprints. Vivian’s handmade holiday cards and correspondence are in the Kathleen Blackshear and Ethel Spears papers in the repository of the Archives of American Art. Her letters inform us that she turned to lapidary and was creating sculpture from stone. Vivian also had a show of her work at the Chicago Teachers College North.

Vivian’s husband, Leo Mayers, was born in England in 1902 to Russian born parents. He died at the age of fifty-five on June 15, 1950. Vivian moved west and her last residence was Prescott, Arizona where she died on 28 April 1970.