selecting un-ordered rows

Hello,

have enyone idea, how to select all rows, preceeding 'mary'
(first two rows, but not LIMIT 2)

name     date
albert   2006-05-17
john     2006-05-17
mary     2006-05-17
benjamin 2006-05-17
carl     2006-05-17
alice    2006-05-17

thanks for help

Dan