Mary Young Ridenbaugh

Mary Young Ridenbaugh (1834 in Shelby County, Kentucky – c. 1941) was an American biographer and novelist, best remembered for her novel Enola; Or, Her Fatal Mistake (1886). Her novel was the namesake of Enola Gay Tibbets, who in-turn was the namesake of the Enola Gay bomber.

Ridenbaugh's works include:

• The Biography of Ephraim McDowell: The Father of Ovariotomy (1890).

Selected Reprints from Biography of Ephraim McDowell:

• Portrait and Biographical Sketch of J. Harvie Dew, M.D. (1890),
• Biographical sketch of George Engelmann, M.D., 1809-1884 (1896).
• A sketch of the life of Joseph Eastman, M. D., LL. D., president of the Central College of Physicians and Surgeons, etc., Indianapolis, Ind (1905).

She was the granddaughter of Ephraim McDowell and the wife of William Ridenbaugh. She was also known as Mary Thompson Valentine and Mary Thompson Young.