Cause of Death:
chronic myocarditis/arterosclerosis

MO Death Certificate #24841
Informant: Mrs. Paul Brown
Lamar, Missouri

Knell Mortuary
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Obituary courtesy of Nancy Brewer:

CARTHAGE EVENING PRESS, JULY 22, 1952

MRS. P. J. MCNERNEY DIES,
WIDOW OF PROMINENT BUILDER WAS 87

Came to Carthage As Bride 63 Years Ago -
Daughter, Mrs. Martha Brown, Survives

Mrs. P. J. McNerney, prominent Carthage woman and widow an of early-day contractor and quarryman here, passed away at 7:30 o'clock this morning at her home, 1615 Grand Avenue. She had been ill the last two weeks and last Thursday her condition became critical.
Mrs. McNerney had been a resident of Carthage the last 63 years, coming here as a bride from Kansas.

Mary Alice Thomas McNerney was born September 3, 1864 in Augusta, Illinois, and when a small child, her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Francis M. Thomas, made the trip in a covered wagon train to Kansas, settling on a farm between Oswego and Columbus.

On March 13, 1889, two daughters of the Francis H. Thomases were married in a double ceremony. Mary Alice was married to Patrick Joseph McNerney and Etta was married to William A. Eskridge.
The McNerneys came directly to Carthage and purchased property on West Central. They bought the home on Grand Avenue in 1913.

Mr. McNerney had lived here since the early eighties, coming here from Kansas City with his brother Martin. The two entered into the railroad construction business. They built the White River division of the Missouri Pacific from Carthage to Aurora and the old Carthage & Western to Pittsburg. They also constructed several railroads in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas.

Later Mr. McNerney launched into the quarry business, organizing the Carthage Quarry Company, north of Carthage, of which he was vice president. The late Eugene O'Keefe and the late F. W. Steadley also were interested in the quarry.

Mr. McNerney built the Jasper County almshouse, now Fair Acres, and the Mark Twain School and he and his brother Martin, built the First National Bank, now the Central National Bank. In later years he was the senior member of the McNerney & Newton Construction Company.
Mr. McNerney passed away January 4, 1934 at the home on Grand Avenue.

Mrs. McNerney was a member of the First Methodist Church and was a charter member of Rhoda Fairchild Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, and also was a member of the Tourist Club and the Alpha Society.

Surviving her are a daughter, Mrs. Martha McNerney Brown of Lamar, who has been at the bedisde of her mother during her illness;

2 grandsons;
Ralph Hallett, Jr. of Los Altos, California
Joseph R. Hallett of Washington D.C.

a brother;
Frank D. Thomas of Carthage, Illinois

two sisters;
Mrs. Emma Dunbar of Lawrence, Kansas
Mrs. Etta Eskridge of St. Louis

a daughter;
Mrs. Blanche McNerney Hallett, died April 6, 1938. The son-in-law, Ralph Hallett, lives in Washington, D. C.
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Many thanks to Nancy for the work on this memorial!

My grandmother, Lucy Dunbar Beamer, daughter of Emma Thomas Dunbar, wrote many "essays" on the family members.
In "FM Thomas Family" write-up, she had this to say about Mary Alice:

"Alice, just 2 years older than Mother, was sort of the Belle of the family. She liked to sew , And as a matter of efficiency, Grandmother saw to it, or let her see to it, that the other girls did the cooking and cleaning and field work while she sewed. She married Patrick Joseph McNerney, a construction man. Socially they were always in a little different class than the rest of us. They had two daughters."

Courtesy: Ray Beamer