Ann Marie Healey
October 8, 2011
Ann Marie (McGarry) Healey, 74, of 420 Adams Avenue, Scranton, died peacefully
in her sleep Saturday at home. Her
favorite thing was spending time with her friends and family, and she spent
Friday evening at home happily visiting her son Ricky.
She was preceded in death by her husband of 35 years, Robert Patrick
Healey, in 1992, and her beloved daughter Kathleen Lewis, in December.
Ann Marie was born on May 7, 1937, in Carbondale, the daughter of the late
Joseph and Eleanor (Healey) McGarry.
She was a member of St. Peter’s Cathedral.
Prior to retirement, she worked at Penn Security Bank and was formerly
employed at St. John the Evangelist Church in Scranton.
Ann Marie loved to cook for her family and she was always sending them
home with containers of food though she was relentless in making sure the
containers came back to her for refilling.
(Anyone who still has one of her containers at this point can keep it;
you know who you are) She loved a
funny story and a good laugh, which was fortunate because her husband Bob was a
famously corny storyteller. She
spent many a warm summer night catching a cool breeze at her daughter Kathy’s
house sharing stories, and it wasn’t summer for her until she had her first hot
dog on the grill, burnt just so.
Ann Marie met her lifelong friend Paula (Healey) Munchak at age 8 when they were
classmates at Cathedral School in Scranton.
When Paula’s handsome brother Bob came home after spending the previous 8
years serving overseas in the army, she introduced him to Ann Marie, a beautiful
redhead (then 18), and it was love at first sight.
They were engaged on their third date and married 6 months later on
September 1, 1956. It was the
fourth consecutive generation in her family of a Healey marrying a McGarry, the
first two in County Mayo, Ireland, and the last two in PA.
Ann Marie never held it against her children for not marrying a McGarry,
though it’s still not too late.
She is survived by her three sons, Robert Healey, and his wife Ruth, of Taylor;
William Healey, of San Francisco; and Richard Healey, of Scranton; her daughter
Donna Healey, of Scranton; her son-in-law Gary Lewis, of Old Forge;
granddaughters Casey and Jaime Lewis, Auden Healey and her husband Richard
Shreffler, Adrienne, Maren and Sloane Healey and grandson Robert Healey;
numerous nieces and nephews; a large extended family. Although not a blood
relative, Pat DeNino of Scranton was Ann Marie’s best friend and “partner in
crime” for as long as anyone can remember and both she and Paula were like
sisters to her. Ann Marie was
preceded in death by her sister Ruth Moore and her brothers Robert and Raymond
McGarry.
A private funeral will be held Wednesday for the family from the Miller Bean
Funeral Home, Inc., 436 Cedar Avenue.
Interment will be private for the family in Fairview Memorial Park,
Elmhurst.
