Mary Louise McGrath Brennan, 95, a former longtime New Canaan resident, died May 3 at her home in Darien.
Mary Brennan, 95, passed away May 3. Her funeral will be on Saturday, May 11.
She was born Feb. 25, 1924, at her parents’ home on 8th Street in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Edward Joseph McGrath and Helen Johnston McGrath. She had three sisters: Helen, Ann, Edith, and a dear cousin, Peggy, who was like a younger sister to her.
Mary graduated from Bay Ridge High School and then St. Joseph’s College for Women, both in Brooklyn. During college she worked to support the war effort, winding stators, an airplane engine part, at Bush Terminal in Brooklyn.
After college, she worked for Dunn & Bradstreet and then several law firms as a legal secretary, retiring from General Signal Corp. as a patent secretary.
— an obituary from Hoyt Funeral Home
She met the love of her life, Frank H. Brennan Sr., and married in Brooklyn in October 1949, where they lived until moving in 1958 to Rockville Centre, New York.
Mary once recounted Frank would only marry her if she agreed to have more than one child. They had six.
In addition to her late husband, she is predeceased by her eldest child, Francis H. Brennan Jr., who died in the attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. She is survived by his wife, Barbara Brennan of Center Harbor, New Hampshire; Kathleen B. Carey and her husband, Charles, of Westport; Ellen B. Flaherty and her husband, Robert, of Danvers, Massachusetts; Mary Augusta Brennan-Jones and her husband, John, of Owings Mills, Maryland; Brian E. Brennan and his wife Kim, of Scarsdale, New York; Sarah B. Jerome and her husband, Kyle, of Ossining, New York; in addition to 10 beloved grandchildren, two great grandchildren; and two on the way.
Mary loved playing bridge, traveling, reading, Broadway shows, the beach, and most of all, being surrounded by her family.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10 a.m., Saturday, May 11 at St. John Roman Catholic Church, 1986 Post Road, Darien.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers in Mary Brennan’s memory.