Mary T. Kenny celebrated her 101st birthday on March 17, 2015. And yes, she was also an Irish-American, born on St. Patrick’s Day, as well. Mary’s life embodied the characteristics of the “greatest generation.” Born in Far Rockaway, New York to Irish immigrants, she was one of seven siblings. Tragically, her mother died of pneumonia at the age of twenty-eight, when Mary was only four years old. At the same time, pneumonia also took lives of Mary’s two younger sisters, Marjorie and Ellen. Unable to care for his young family, while he continued to earn a living as a bricklayer, Mary’s father Patrick found various new homes for Mary and her brothers.

Mary was to live as foster child for two years, until her father remarried. At that time she returned to Far Rockaway to her father’s house at age six, where she met her step mother, Nora. Unfortunately, from age six into her teenage years, Nora forced Mary to work from dawn to dusk cooking, cleaning and caring for the family and its boarders, often privately subjecting her to beatings. Nevertheless, Mary cared for Nora in her declining years, until her death, when Mary was nineteen.

During World War II, Mary’s brother Patrick earned the Silver Star in Anzio and her brother John earned the Bronze Star in New Guinea. Both men died relatively young, Patrick at age sixty-five and John at age sixty-two. Mary’s brother Edward died of lung cancer at age thirty-two, while enlisted in the Navy. Her brother Thomas died in his late thirties of a brain aneurism. The sadness of so many untimely deaths in Mary’s family was compounded prior to Edward’s death when his son Stephen was killed in an accident at nine months of age and when Stephen’s sibling was still-born.

Before she retired, Mary was employed as a telephone operator, a comptometer operator and an information operator. She worked for various employers, including New York Telephone Company. Her work took her to several locations on Long Island and in Manhattan, including an office in the Empire State Building.

In 1950, Mary married Raymond P. Kenny, Jr., who before he died in 1982, was the Superintendent of the Inc. Village of Cedarhurst Water Pollution Control Plant and Village Parking Meters, as well as the Chief of the Lawrence-Cedarhurst Fire Department. He was also a World War II veteran. Raymond and Mary raised three sons, Raymond, III, Robert and Edward. Mary is also survived by two grandchildren, Tyler and Christopher, who are the sons of Edward and his wife Judy, and four generations of nieces and nephews. When Mary’s mother-in-law Madeline needed a home in her later years, Mary welcomed her as the sixth occupant of her four room house. She then proceeded to care for Madeline, her dog, her cat and her parakeet.

Mary endured still more adversity when her husband suffered a stroke and became disabled at the age of sixty-three. From that point, until his death at age sixty-seven, when she lost the love of her life, Mary served heroically as her husband’s primary caregiver. In her family life, Mary has consistently exemplified the best qualities of a wife, mother, in-law and grandmother.
She offered this same type of dedication to her community, where she was active in the Mother’s Club of St. Joachim’s Church and the Cub Scouts in Cedarhurst, New York.

Approximately three and a half years ago, while running errands in her typically active and independent fashion, Mary fell in Lindenhurst Village. She broke her wrist and foot, while sustaining a compression fracture of her vertebra. Unfortunately, in June of 2013, Mary fell again, this time at home, resulting in the same injuries, only to a different wrist, foot and vertebra.

Despite the many tragic and challenging events in her life, Mary always maintained a positive attitude that inspired and uplifted all of those she encountered. When she left us on Wednesday, her wit was as quick; her mind as sharp and her wisdom as useful as ever. She loved to hum melodies, sing songs, tell jokes and she leaves an indelible mark of joy on all whom she encountered. In celebrating her 101st birthday, we not only commemorated a milestone of time, but more so, the value of the presence of an amazing woman in the lives of her family, friends and community. When asked to share the secret of her longevity, Mary would quip “work and worry.” That answer is telling in that it was always for someone else she that “worked” to ease their burden, and it was also about others that she “worried,” and always prioritized others before herself. Above all of her talents, beyond her beauty and her personification of the word “lady,” the love she shared and deserves in return is her legacy and what we celebrate most of all.

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