Person:Mary O'Brien (35)

. Mary was the first child of John and Molly O'Brien. She was baptized at St. Stephens and the family was living on Elk Street for the 1910 census. Mary went to St. Monica's elementary school and on to South Park High School, then transferred to Mount Mercy High school where she graduated form. Her first job after high school with the telephone company as an operator. In October of 1929 Mary joined the Sisters of Mercy Convent a Roman Catholic religious order head quartered in Buffalo, Erie County, NY. The night before Mary was to enter the convent there was a big party held at her parents home. All the aunts and uncles were there and the celebration was going on late into the night. Mary's great Uncle Paddy Conole had his last dance with Mary and he left the party to walk his lady friend home. When Paddy crossed the street he was hit and killed by a taxi cab. This was a big loss to the Moroney family. In the Mercy Convent Mary took the religious name, Aloysia. Mary attended Canisius College where she received her undergraduate degree in education. Mary taught school in many of Buffalo's Catholic elementary schools. She also taught in Olean, NY and Batavia, NY. Mary was in constant contact with her family as she delighted in keeping up and sharing the news. It was Mary's phone and address book that gave me all the addresses of the cousins in Ireland and around the country. As all the O'Brien children grew up; Aunt Mary would make the veils for the First Holy Communions and provided the nieces and nephews with their first prayer book and rosary. After the Vatican II Ecumenical Council held in the early 1960's the religious orders laws and rules were changed to give more personal freedoms to the nuns and priests. After this Sister Aloysia cold visit more often and even stay over night with her family. She took trips to Riverside, NJ to visit the Cahill's and stayed with her "Brown-eyed baby brother's" family in West Seneca. In the early 1960's Mary's health started to fail and the doctors sent her to Georgetown University Hospital near Washington DC for an examination. There Mary had open-heart surgery and had a heart valve replaced. This was a new surgery at the time and Mary came through without any problems. When we were young children Mary would let us put our ear to her chest so we could hear the ball open and close the chamber in her heart. May was very kind and loving to all the nieces and nephews and every greeting and good-by was a hug and kiss. Mary was a regular visitor to our home and we treated her like one of the family. My cousin, Colleen O'Brien Sylvis remarked about this years later that when she would visit her Aunt Mary she was shocked at how her Uncle Eddie's kids would climb all over Aunt Mary and pull her habit off to see how short her hair was or what she was wearing underneath her religious habit. IN the early 1970's Mary's health started to decline. Mary lost weight and ended up in Mercy Hospital. Mary died in December 1973. She was waked at the Mercy Convent on Abbott Road, South Buffalo. She had a black felt coffin and there was only one flower piece from the "Open-Hearts Club" an organization for people that had at the time the rare procedure of open heart surgery. It was a very large funeral with over fifty cars following to Holy Cross Cemetery in Lackawanna, NY. I can remember my father saying how proud Aunt Mary would have been at her own funeral. Fr. Crumlish said the funeral mass and eulogy and said Mary was going home for Christmas. There wasn't a dry eye in the church.

O'Brien, John, Aunt Mary and Catherine Cahill Imhoff http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=image&guid=55dc7a35-d86c-4000-adca-0190965bbfcb&tid=7775997&pid=-1039232484

O'Brien, EP Sr Deb,Kev,Mol http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=image&guid=9f1724ee-259d-4d29-b533-4e24f1f16e6d&tid=7775997&pid=-1039232484

O'Brien, Sr http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=image&guid=87d00baf-4a49-4d61-8218-9c9c4021157a&tid=7775997&pid=-1039232484

O'Brien, Molly and Aunt Mary http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=image&guid=0eb223b9-df47-43da-b433-bb54f8717e07&tid=7775997&pid=-1039232484

O'Brien, Sr http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=image&guid=50506dbb-efdb-48d3-b930-d7375a564eaa&tid=7775997&pid=-1039232484

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census. (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. For details on the contents of the film numbers, visit the following NARA web page: NARA.Original data - United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Thirteenth Census of the Unit)
   Year: 1910; Census Place: Buffalo Ward 4, Erie, New York; Roll: T624_941; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 25; Image: 381.

   Birth date: abt 1909Birth place: New YorkResidence date: 1910Residence place: Buffalo Ward 4, Erie, New York _APID: 7884::121216934

   http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=1910uscenindex&h=121216934&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt