Audrey L. Cooney
…active R.A.R.A. member; 79
NO. TEWKSBURY - Mrs. Audrey L. (Kelley) Cooney, age 79, passed peacefully on Thursday afternoon, July 21, at D’Youville Senior Care Center in Lowell after a long period of declining health. She was the beloved wife for forty-eight years of the late Elias A. “Bud” Cooney, who died in June 2012.
She was born in Dorchester in December 1936, one of four children of the late Earl and Edna Kelley, and raised in Dorchester. She and Bud had lived their entire married life in North Tewksbury.
Audrey was a communicant of St. Robert Bellarmine Church in Andover.
Audrey and Bud were special needs activists, tireless volunteers, and had served for many years among the founding families of R.A.R.A. in Lowell. In later years, she was active at the Tewksbury Senior Center, was a Past President of the Tewksbury Garden Club, and was a talented cook, known for her magnificent “blizzard dinners” hosted for family and friends during winter storms.
She leaves two sons and a daughter-in-law, John A. Cooney of Tewksbury and Paul E. Cooney Esq. and his wife Andrea Snowden, Esq. of Lincoln, NE; eight grandchildren, Caitlin and her husband Jordan, Brighid, Ryan “Mack,” Elias, Mia, Ella, John, and Anna all of NE; two great grandchildren, Lily and Cohan; a brother and sister-in-law, Robert and Susan Kelley of FL; many nieces and nephews including her neighbors Daniel and Sharon (Callahan) Cooney and their children Jeffrey and Michael all of Tewksbury, and Diane and Rich Descoteaux of Newburyport; her dear and faithful friend, Joan Unger of Tewksbury; and was predeceased by her sisters, Janet Johnson and Patricia Bronske.
Relatives and friends will be received on Wednesday morning from 9:00 until 10:15 a.m. in the Tewksbury Funeral Home, corner of 1 Dewey and 975 Main Sts. (Rte. 38) TEWKSBURY CENTER, Ph. (800 in MA or 978) 851 2950. Her Funeral Mass will be celebrated Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. at St. Robert Bellarmine Church, 198 Haggetts’s Pond Rd., Andover, followed by burial in St. Mary Cemetery, No. Tewksbury. In lieu of flowers, memorials to R.A.R.A., 295 High St., Lowell, MA 01852 are encouraged. tewksburyfuneralhome.com