Beloved Mother, Wife and Prolific Poet, Mary Eileen (Carney) Kavanaugh passed away peacefully, at home in West Roxbury, surrounded by her loving family, on July 20, 2026. She was 87 years old.
Born in Waltham, Massachusetts to Margaret and Robert Carney, she attended St. Mary’s High School serving as Class President and graduating Summa Cum Laude. She went on to attend Chamberlayne Junior College in Boston and worked in Manhattan before returning home to Waltham, where she would meet her devoted husband of 63 years and love of her life, Kenneth Kavanaugh.
A prolific and gifted poet, Mary treasured crafting poems, with dozens winning awards at her beloved West Roxbury Library Annual Poetry Contest.
Most of all Mary treasured her four children, Maureen, Lisa, Julie and Kenneth, their spouses, Anthony Law, Tom Leger and Tom Peisel, and her grandchildren, Samantha, Jack and Murphy and their partners.
She joins her loving parents and her siblings, John “Buddy”, Robert, Lillian and Linda in Heaven. Her remaining siblings are Catherine “Kitty,” Elizabeth “Betty,” Patricia and David.
She will be greatly missed by all who knew and loved her and her presence will live through the legacy of her writing.
Services will be held in Waltham on Monday, August 24 at 10 am, Saint Mary Parish, 133 School Street, with a Celebration of Life luncheon to follow at the nearby Chateau Restaurant.