Mary Catherine Mooney

Mary Maske Mooney was born on April 8, 1937, in Evanston, Illinois, to Catherine Cook Maske and William G. Maske. She graduated from St. Patrick’s Academy in Des Plaines, Illinois, in 1954 and attended Marquette University for three years, studying medical technology. In 1955, she met her future husband, James Mooney, on a blind date at a bar in Milwaukee on St. Patrick’s Day. Mary worked as a medical technologist at Northwestern Hospital before she and Jim married on July 26, 1958. The couple moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, the following month when Jim took a position with Sperry Rand.

Over their 36 years in Charlottesville, Mary and Jim welcomed six children: Patrick, Carrie, Jeanne, Patricia, Jimmy, and Michael. They mourned the early deaths of Patrick and Patricia. While raising her family, Mary remained deeply involved in volunteer work at the University of Virginia Hospital and served as a medical technologist conducting specialized cystic fibrosis testing throughout the state. In 1994, the family relocated to Jamestown, North Carolina, when Jim joined a new organization. He retired in 2007, and together they cherished time with their surviving children—Carrie and Tim Doyle, Jeanne Jarden and partner Marty, James Mooney Jr. and Alice, and Michael and Jennifer Mooney—as well as their eleven grandchildren, Megan, Mary Grace, Maura, Jack, Zach, Hannah, Jake, Ben, Matt, Nate, and Emma, and two great-grandchildren, Nora and Julian.

Mary had a lifelong passion for all things creative, from sewing, quilting, knitting, crochet, needlepoint, and cross-stitch to classical piano. She was an inventive cook, an avid reader of Agatha Christie mysteries, a devoted University of Virginia sports fan, and a woman of deep and abiding faith. Those who knew her spoke of her warm sense of humor, her gentle ability to guide others toward meaningful paths, her strong values, her light-touch leadership, her generous spirit, and her legendary cherry pies. Above all, she was the loving orchestrator of her family, cherished by all whose lives she touched.

She will be deeply missed. Godspeed, Meema.