Mary McGonagle Passes Away

Mary McGonagle, 84, a longtime resident of Reading, passed away after a long illness on Thursday evening, Nov. 29. She was the beloved wife of the late Gerald E. McGonagle.

Born in Malden and raised in Medford, she was the daughter of the late James, and the late Josephine McGinn. Mary was a graduate of the Chandler Secretarial School in Boston. As a young lady, she worked at the former Schrafft’s candy factory in Charlestown. Mary and her late husband Gerald came to Reading in 1960. She loved spending time in Vermont with her family. Mary was a devoted and loving wife, mother, and grandmother. To Mary, an only child, it wasn’t necessary to be related for her to consider you part of her family. There is a special group of women who she considered her sisters, and her theirs. She had an uncanny way of making everyone she met feel like they’d made a friend for life.

Mary is survived by three daughters and one son, Deborah Donnelly and her husband Michael of Rockland, Maine, Michael McGonagle and his wife Jeanne of Reading, Sharon Ricci and her husband Raymond of Westwood, and Tricia Relihan and her husband Scott of North Andover. She is also survived by eight grandchildren, Declan Donnelly, Caleb and Adelaide McGonagle, Kyle and Emma Ricci, and Darcy, Quinn, and Aidan Relihan.

A Funeral Mass will be celebrated at St. Agnes Church, 186 Woburn St., Reading on Tuesday, Dec. 4, at 10:30 am. Burial will be private. In lieu of flowers, contributions in Mary’s memory may be made to the Sawtelle Hospice House, c/o Gift Processing Center, 41 Mall Rd., Burlington, MA 01805. Arrangements by the Douglass, Edgerley & Bessom Funeral Home, Reading.