Mary Kathleen (“Kay”) Sowyrda.. formerly Mary Kathleen Molloy, of 2 Walker Avenue, Taunton, Massachusetts died October 11, 2009 at the Taunton Nursing Home after a five year battle with Alzheimer’s disease and a more recent battle with cancer. She was eighty-nine (89)
Kay was born in 1920 in Taunton .the second daughter of Joseph and Williamena Molloy. She graduated from Taunton High School in 1938. After graduation, she worked at the former General Electric plant in her beloved Weir section of Taunton, where she became a shop steward in the union. After her tenure at GE, Kay entered the Morton Hospital School of Nursing, from which she graduated as a R.N.. She was training as a member of the Nursing Cadets Corps to assist the war effort in World War II when the war came to an end.
After returning to Morton to work in its maternity ward, Kay became employed at the then Myles Standish State School (more recently known as Paul Dever State School) in Taunton. She worked there caring for the children she loved. While working there, she started dating the then Assistant Treasurer of Myles Standish, Walter Sowyrda, After a two-year courtship, they were married in 1954.
Kay loved to travel with her family, camping throughout the United States in her younger years. In her later years, she enjoyed numerous cruises with family to Alaska, Europe and the Caribbean. She was long-time active member of both the Oakland and Weir Senior Citizens group, thoroughly enjoying their trips throughout New England with her friends.
She will always be remembered by those who knew for her undying devotion and loyalty to her family and friends, and her love of children. Her welcoming, happy personality made her yard the popular gathering place for the neighborhood kids to play during their elementary school years.
A communicant of St. Andrew the Apostle Church (formerly St. Paul’s Church), Kay is survived by her beloved husband of 55 years, Walter Sowyrda of Taunton her sons, Michael Sowyrda and his wife Kathleen of Grafton, MA and William Sowyrda and his wife Mary Ellen of Hingham, MA, her sister, Florence (Molloy) Treneer of Taunton, as well as her grandchildren, Kathleen, Brian, Jennifer and Kaitlyn Sowyrda and Sean Kiley.
Funeral Mass at St. Andrew the Apostle Church (St. Paul’s) Thursday Oct 15th in Taunton at 11 am. Calling hours will be held at the O’Keefe-Wade Funeral Home, 70 Washington Street in Taunton on Wed from 4-8 pm. Interment Memasaket Hill Cemetery in Middleboro.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in her memory to Taunton Nursing Home Activities Fund, 350 Norton Ave, Taunton, ma, 02780.