Of Malden for the past 18 years, formerly of Somerville, passed away peacefully on October 18, 2015, two weeks short of her 87th birthday.
Born in Somerville, Mary graduated from Somerville High School with the class of 1946. She attended Tufts University and graduated from Massachusetts General Hospital School of Nursing in 1952. Since that time she had taken much pride in her nursing career and worked at many organizations in healthcare including the last 25 years of her career at the Boston University Infirmary from which she retired in 1996. She also moonlighted in the 1970’s as a matron for eight years working with the City of Somerville Police Department. She lived her life as a devout Catholic and a pillar of her church at St. Joseph’s Parish in Somerville, the most import aspect of her life after family was the many years spent in charity and volunteer work, 42 years at the St. Joseph’s annual holiday bazaar, Catholic Charities, she was a member St. Joseph’s Parish Women’s Sodality, and St. Joseph’s chapter of St. Vincent De Paul for many years as well as volunteering her time at the Hallmark Health Oncology Center in Stoneham, Partners Hospice and Partners Home Care in Waltham for the past eight years where she built so many lasting relationships which filled her heart with such joy, not to mention she was a true blue Yankee’s fan and loved watching the games. Mary was a unique woman with a heart of gold and took pleasure in loving, giving and always doing for others before herself, she was the kind of person who left a warm impression on everyone she met. Mary was the devoted mother of, Albert J. (Skip) Howard of Malden, Mary E. (Betty) Ciampoli and her husband Warren of Malden and John P. (Howie) Howard and his wife Anna of Westford. She was the loving grandmother of Michael D. Conner II of Lowell, Amanda K. Howard of Westford, Brian P. Howard (Cooper) and Elizabeth A. Howard (Cooper). Cherished sister of the late Katherine T. Morin, and the late John (Jack) J. O’Keefe, the late Theresa O’Keefe, and the late Richard O’Keefe, she is survived by her brother Robert R O’Keefe and his wife Jacqueline of Westford and the loving aunt of many nieces and nephews.
Funeral from the Brown-Flaherty Funeral Home, 261 Washington Street, Union Square, Somerville on Thursday at 9am. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated in St. Joseph Church at 10am. Relatives and friends gratefully invited. Visiting hours Wednesday 4-8pm. Interment Holy Cross Cemetery Malden.