Mary B. Conaty, 79
In 1957, as a young woman of 19, Mary Rooney immigrated to the United States, where she settled in New York City and enjoyed everything it had to offer, her family said, while returning home to western Ireland during the summer. Ms. Conaty died on Sunday at the Kanas Center for Hospice Care in Quiogue, having being admitted a week earlier.
She was born on June 20, 1938, in County Leitrim to James and Anne Rooney and attended Mercy College, a Catholic girls secondary school in Sligo, Ireland. She worked at various secretarial jobs in New York City, including at Met Life, an insurance company, where she met Terence C. Conaty. They were married on May 25, 1963, and had five children.
Ms. Conaty, her husband, and their young children moved to Ronkonkoma in 1972, and later to Babylon. Her husband was a high school teacher and she worked as a caretaker of preschool children and the elderly. In 1994, after their children had left for college or entered the workplace, the couple moved to East Hampton.
Family was always important to Ms. Conaty, as was traveling. Although she and her husband, who survives, traveled extensively, through Europe, Hawaii, and Asia, her favorite place to spend summers was with her family in Ireland. She made many friends in East Hampton and could be found most mornings with them and her neighbors of 20 or more years at the Golden Pear Cafe on Newtown Lane in the village where they convened for coffee.
Ms. Conaty was an active member of the East Hampton Irish-American Club as well as Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton, for which she volunteered. Her family said she adored her grandchildren and spent much of her time “caring for and spoiling them.”
In addition to her husband, she is survived by her children: Carmel Conaty of Severna Park, Md., Tricia Conaty of San Diego, Siobhan Conaty of Wynnewood, Pa., Terence Conaty of Nashville, and Kieran Conaty of Edgewater, Md. Her siblings, Terence Rooney and Kathleen Egan of Sligo, Seamus Rooney of Fairfield, Conn., Anne O’Brien of Eastbourne, U.K., and Michael Rooney of Wappingers Falls, N.Y., also survive, as do six grandchildren and dozens of nieces and nephews.
Visiting hours are to be held today from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton, with a funeral Mass at Most Holy Trinity Church at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow, followed by burial at the church cemetery.
The family has suggested memorial donations to the Angel Fuel Fund, Most Holy Trinity Church, 57 Buell Lane, East Hampton 11937.