Ann M. Grady
Beloved mother, grandmother, aunt and friend
Ann M. (Cooney) Grady, 89, of Lowell, Massachusetts died peacefully in hospice care at D’Youville Manor in Lowell on May 21, 2023.
A lifelong resident of Lowell, Ann was the daughter of the late James E. and the late Anna (Ward) Cooney.
She grew up in the Highlands, graduating from Keith Hall and Lowell State Teachers College. She began her thirty-five-year teaching career in 1955 in Westford and taught for many years in Lowell at the Reilly Elementary School and the Sullivan Middle School next door, where “Mrs. Grady” touched the lives and improved the minds of generations of fourth- and sixth-grade students.
Her college yearbook described her as “cool, calm and collected” and noted her “straight-faced humor,” traits that all who knew her saw in abundance; like her late husband, Frank W. Grady, she loved a laugh. They were married for 59 years until his passing in 2017 and lived in the same Belvedere home for most of them, though they also traveled regularly in retirement, to Nova Scotia, California, Florida, and the Caribbean.
Generous and hospitable, they both enjoyed nothing more than good company and conversation, often in the comfortable space of “Nana’s kitchen,” where she would dispense both wisdom and wisecracks in roughly equal measure. Ann was an avid gardener and reader, especially of mysteries; a demon at cribbage, crosswords and the daily cryptoquote; a cat person, an independent and progressive thinker, and a loyal if sometimes critical fan of the Sox, Celtics, Patriots and Bruins.
She is survived by a son, Frank Grady Jr. and his wife Amy Pawl of Ladue, MO; two daughters, Annemarie Grady Bell of Londonderry, NH and Martha Abney and her husband Eric of Fremont, NH; and eight grandchildren: Katelyn, Joshua and his fiancé Cecily Macari, and Sarah Bell; Spencer and Emma Grady-Pawl; and Bridget, Emily and Ian Abney. She is also survived by her sister Rosemary (Cooney) Georges of Florida and her brother-in-law George Grady and his wife Evelyn of Lowell. Ann also leaves many nieces and nephews, and numerous extended family members and friends.
She was predeceased by her brothers James, Gerald, Robert and Arthur and sisters Estelle, Patricia (Monroe) and Marion (Kimball).
Friends may call at the O’DONNELL FUNERAL HOME 276 PAWTUCKET STREET in Lowell from 3:00 to 7:00 on Tuesday May 30, 2023. Relatives and friends are invited to attend her Funeral Mass to be celebrated on Wednesday at the IMMACULATE CONCEPTION CHURCH at 10 o'clock. Committal Services to follow at St. Mary Cemetery in Tewksbury. E-condolences/directions at www.odonnellfuneralhome.com. Those wishing may make contributions in her memory to St. Joseph’s Indian School in Chamberlain, SD (
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). Arrangements by Funeral Director James F. O’Donnell, Jr. (978) 458-8768.
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