Mary Keaney

Of Falls Church VA died peacefully and surrounded by family and friends on June 2 after a year-long battle with cancer. She is survived by a sister Kathleen and brother John. She leaves behind her husband Thomas and four children: Thomas (Judy) of Brooklyn NY, Kathleen Douglas (Steven) of Richmond VA, Maura (Todd Williams) of Arlington VA, Anna of San Francisco CA; and eight grandchildren, Bridget, Amy and Claire Douglas; Ella, Thomas, and Nora Keaney; and Maren and Sydney Williams.
Mary Beth was born in Wisconsin, grew up in Colorado, and graduated from Denver University. She married Tom, an Air Force Academy graduate in 1963, and spent the next 29 years raising her family across multiple Air Force bases, from New Hampshire to Guam. Along the way she completed a Master’s degree in Library Science from the University of Michigan while pregnant with her third child.
In 1986, Mary Beth and her family settled in Virginia, where she began her 20 year career as a school librarian, first at St John’s and Queen of Apostles Catholic Schools, then for 15 years at Forestville and Sleepy Hollow Elementary Schools of Fairfax County. She was well known and loved by all for the care and concern she showed for others and her talent of reading to, and organizing events for, the school children, most of whom she knew by name. In retirement, she brought the same spirit and care for others as she volunteered at several church affiliated organizations sponsored through the Ignatian Volunteer Corps, most recently with L’Arche, an organization where people with intellectual disabilities and those who care for them live and learn together.
A memorial mass will be said at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, 3305 Glen Carlyn Rd., Falls Church, VA on June 11 at 10 am, followed by a reception (location to be provided at the mass). Burial will follow at a later date at Arlington National Cemetery. Friends are invited to visit her family in her home on June 12 from noon to 7pm.
In lieu of flowers, please send contributions to L’Arche Greater Washington, DC, PO Box 21471 (www.larche-gwdc.org) or the Ignatian Volunteer Corps, 112 East Madison St., Suite 300, Baltimore, MD 21202 (https://ivcusa.org/ivc-offices/welcome-to-ivc-baltimore/)

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