Mary Elizabeth Kane, 85, of Winston-Salem, N.C., died Tuesday at WFU-Baptist Health, Winston-Salem, of complications following surgery. Her childhood sweetheart and husband of 51 years, Richard J. "Dick" Kane, preceded her in death in 2006. The youngest daughter of Joseph P. McGarry and Mary A. Mullen, Mary grew up in the close-knit Irish-American neighborhood surrounding Saint Patrick's church in the Hyde Park section of Scranton, Pennsylvania. While in school, she worked in the parish office, across the street from the neighborhood grocery store operated by her future husband's family. Beautiful and shy, she was an excellent student, graduating at the top of her class from the parish school. Given the difficult times following WWII, she went to work directly after high school for the Prudential Insurance Company to support her aging parents. After her parents died in 1950 and 1951, she married her childhood sweetheart, Dick Kane, who had settled with his brother, Tom, and widowed mother in Winston-Salem, NC. Although they were starting a life far away from Scranton, Mary and Dick recreated their parish-centered upbringing for their own five children, building a home near Saint Leo's church and school in Winston-Salem. They became active members of the area's small Roman Catholic community, hosting the nuns and priests from the parish, and sending all five of their children to Saint Leo's School and Bishop McGuinness High School. The children helped out in the church and school, just as their mother had done. After Dick died in 2006, Mary moved to Arbor Acres in Winston-Salem, where she started a new life amid a warm and welcoming community of friends. The once-shy and still-beautiful girl sang in musical productions, attended the symphony and developed a previously undiscovered talent for sculpting. Despite her grief, she never stopped living and, in so doing, she taught us all how to live. All five of her children were at her side when she died Tuesday: Richard J. Kane, Jr. of Daleville (VA), husband of Deborah Wheeler Kane; Mary Elizabeth Kyle of Snellville (GA), wife of William C. Kyle; Thomas J. Kane of Newton (MA), husband of Karen Grace Gray; Patrick J. Kane of Winston-Salem, husband of Jane Moury Kane; and Brian J. Kane of Baltimore (MD), husband of Kathleen Stack Kane.
In addition to her children, she is survived by her dear brother, Joseph P. McGarry, Jr. of Warminster (PA), as well as 14 grandchildren (Kelly, Jack and Sarah Kyle in Georgia; Kathleen and R. Joseph Kane in Virginia; August and T. Finnian Kane in Massachusetts; P. Boggan, Kendall, Mary Carolyn and Daniel Kane in Winston-Salem; and Rory, Cecelia and R.T. Xavier Kane in Maryland) and 2 great-grandchildren (Jaycee and Hailey Kyle in Georgia). funeral mass will be celebrated Monday at 10:00 a.m. at St. Leo the Great Catholic Church, 335 Springdale Avenue, Winston-Salem. friends may call on Sunday, 2:00 to 4:00 p.m., at Hayworth-Miller's Silas Creek Chapel, Winston-Salem. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to St. Leo the Great Catholic Church. Online condolences may be sent to www.hayworth-miller.com.