A native of
Yonkers, New York, Waring was the daughter of hat manufacturer John T. Waring; her father was the original builder of
Greystone, later to become the home of
Samuel J. Tilden and
Samuel Untermyer. For much of her life she was active in the affairs of the
Episcopal Church, serving on the
Westchester County branch of the women's auxiliary of the board of missions, and chairing the women's auxiliary of
St. John's Protestant Episcopal Church; at one time she was vice-chairman of the women's auxiliary of the
Episcopal Diocese of New York. She was a member of the
Colony Club of New York and the
Society of Mayflower Descendants. Interested in the history of stenciling, she compiled a large collection of stencil designs taken from rooms and furniture. Her research, along with that of
Esther Stevens Brazer, was instrumental in reviving interest in the art of stenciling in the twentieth century, some years after it had gone out of fashion. Her 1937 book,
Early American Stencils on Walls and Furniture, has been called "seminal" and "definitive" in the field. Waring died in Yonkers after a long illness. ==References==