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Mary Frances FitzGerald (nee Nugent)

1 July 1936 - 22 March 2015
Predeceased by husband Edward J. FitzGerald (1923-2009); by parents Michael and Katherine Nugent; by brothers Michael (Montréal), William and Terrence (St John's) and sister Gertrude Brown (Springfield, Mass., USA). Leaving to mourn her son John Edward and her brother Paul in St. John's, brother Jack and sister-in-law Linda (Michael) in Montréal, sisters-in-law Helen FitzGerald (Corner Brook) and Madelyn FitzGerald (Halifax), and a wide circle of nephews, nieces, relatives and friends. Resting at Caul's Funeral Home, LeMarchant Road, St. John's. Visitation on Tuesday 24 March from 2-4 and 7-9 pm. Funeral Mass at St. Teresa's Parish, Mundy Pond Road on Wednesday 25 March at 11:30 am with interment to follow at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery. Flowers gratefully accepted or a donation may be made in her memory to the Gathering Place. Mary was the second of seven children of Michael and Katherine (neé Kennedy) Nugent. Michael's father, fisherman John Nugent, rowed in the record-setting 9:13 Outer Cove crew in the St John's Regatta of 1901. Mary grew up in the Ropewalk Range, Mundy Pond Road, where her maternal grandfather and other family members lived and worked nearby at the Colonial Cordage Co. Ltd. The family later moved to Empire Avenue West. Mary's family were among the founding parishioners of St. Teresa's Parish in 1930. An accomplished student of the Sisters of Mercy, Mary was the first graduate of St. Teresa's School to win the Calvert C. Pratt Scholarship to Memorial University. She trained in "commercial" in the mid - 1950s, and then followed her brothers Michael and Jack to Montréal where she became a secretary in the executive offices of Alcan and then at CP Hotels, and she studied interior decorating. Eleven years later she returned to Newfoundland before marrying her fiancée Edward FitzGerald at St Teresa's in the middle of a snowstorm in February 1967. In January 1968 they had a son, John Edward. As a secretary in St. John's Mary worked by turns at the Art Gallery of Newfoundland, then with Drs. George Story, William Kirwan, and J.D. Widdowson on the Dictionary of Newfoundland English, and then with the Department of Education of the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. She was an excellent and innovative chef, loved baking for her son and husband, and delighted in homemaking and entertaining family and friends. An avid lover of flowers and floral art, she greatly enjoyed painting in retirement, much to the delight of friends and family who received her work as gifts. Special thanks to Dr Vinod Patel and the staff of the St. John's Long Term Care Facility, to Fr. Leo English and the staff of St. Teresa's Parish, and Caul's Funeral Home.

 

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