Mary Lee McKenna

Mary Lee McKenna was born on October 11, 1932, in Chicago, Illinois. She grew up in a small town in Genesee County Michigan during the Depression and then the world war and knew mostly uncertainty and poverty in her childhood. From that uncertainty, and out of her own grit and determination and spirit she built the life she imagined as child for herself. She once said that she decided when she was about 10 that she wasn’t ever going to get divorced and she was going to have a large family. She left home at 17 to make it as an actress in New York City. Like many, her initial dream was deferred by a marriage that last 54 years and produced 8 children, 25 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren. She never got divorced. She married the most steadfast man that any of us have ever known and was his equal in every way. Somewhere along the way she returned to her original vocation and acted on stage, on television, and in the movies. She was the most positive person many of us have ever known. She had good days and bad days, just like the rest of us, but she approached them all with an equal mixture of indomitable spirit and Midwestern resolve. Her approach to life was to pay no mind to the negative and to focus entirely on the positive. She accomplished more in one lifetime that most of us would be able to do in two or three lifetimes. She made the most of her opportunities and the world was a better place for her presence in it. She was an advisor, confidant, best friend, adventurer, blazer of trails, teller of truths, lover of the outdoors and of nature, wife, mother, grandmother. After sampling other religions, she converted to Catholicism and was a devout and devoted believer for the final 70 years of her life. She was a firm and gentle example of a faithful Catholic for her family and friends. Later in life she became a devoted student of G.K. Chesterton, the English recusants, and the dissolution of the monasteries. There is no part of any of our lives that she did not touch and improve. We are made better by her example as a daughter, a spouse, a parent, a grandparent, a friend, and a fellow traveler through this vale of tears. Everyone in her care – family and friends – was shaped, sculpted, curated, healed by her gentle love. We are all unalterably lucky beyond measure – and certainly beyond words – to have been her children, grandchildren, in-laws, friends. She loved life, and, consequently, she made it better for everyone around her. We have been truly blessed to spend whatever time we did under her sheltering love and enthusiasm. Mary Lee had a long and mostly healthy and energetic life. She did not get cheated. She has gone to what we hope and pray is her heavenly reward. It is now squarely on our shoulders to live in the light of her example – be joyful, be happy, be content in the sure and certain knowledge that God loves us and wants us to live lives full of joy and meaning here and to be with him in heaven. That is what Mary Lee McKenna wanted for all of us, and it is what she did her best to support and encourage in her living years. She leaves behind six children, 25 grandchildren, 23 great-grandchildren, a brother, and a host of friends. She was predeceased by her husband, James, and two children (Catherine and Peter).

Mary Lee McKenna

October 11, 1932 - September 11, 2026