Mary (Monahan) Fanelli

Mary S. (Monahan) Fanelli, 95 years old, of White Street, Shenandoah. Our matriarch, Mary Sabina was the fourth daughter of Dr. John S. and Florence D. Monahan, born on January 28, 1924. For the past 2 years she lived with her daughter and family in Wynnewood, PA. She was a lifelong member of Divine Mercy Parish and graduated from Shenandoah Catholic High School in 1942, she then graduated from Rosemont College in 1946 with a degree in Mathematics where she was recently honored as a noted alumna.  Mary went on to teach high school Math and Science. She was married to her childhood sweetheart, John (Jack) V. Fanelli for 57 years before his death in 2007.

  Mary was a member of the Fountain Springs Country Club where she regularly swam laps in the pool long before it was considered a form of exercise and not just a sport. Mary was always ahead of her time. She practiced yoga and drank protein shakes before it was fashionable. She was continuously inventing products to make everyday life easier; now we see perfected versions of them in stores and smile. For decades, she played bridge each week with her bridge club and never, ever liked to lose. She had an amazing sense of humor and was fiercely competitive, brilliant and a thinker of all things.  While at Rosemont College she won the Bishop Fulton J. Sheen award for writing excellence. Her grammar was perfection. She was always the go-to person for questions on how something should be written grammatically. She loved reading the newspapers and would often send clipped articles to her adult children about a latest trends, parenting techniques or how to get the most out of life. Mary loved travel and adventure. From her private meeting with Princess Grace of Monaco while traveling in France to her first class trip to the Vatican in Rome to see her cousin Cardinal Francis Brennan be ordained, Mary always seemed to find herself in the most amazing places. She was truly our celebrity and queen. She delighted in everything glamorous, classy and elegant but mostly she loved her family and was the center of their lives. She savored nightly a glass of champagne with dinner insisting it was good for arthritis and she never passed up a piece of chocolate. Most recently, her evenings had an order to them: watch the evening news, Jeopardy, Wheel and then play Solitaire on her iPad. Mary was truly one of a kind and will be sadly missed.

 She is survived by her loving children, son John, (Diana) Parkersburg, WVA, daughters Mary Jude (Dave) Zarkoski, Spring City, PA, and Mimi (Kraig) Null, Wynnewood, PA and daughter-in-law Amy (Mark-preceded) Ashland, PA,  and 12 grandchildren, Justin (Julia), Joshua (Kayleigh), Jordan Fanelli of Parkersburg WVA; Colin (Jessica), Anthony (Colleen), Natalie Fanelli, Ashland; Christopher, Laura, David and Nicholas Zarkoski, Spring City; Natalie and Olivia Null, Wynnewood. Three great grandsons, Christian, Geno and Nico and many nieces and nephews.  She is preceded in death by her parents, her husband Jack, loving son Mark, and three sisters, Florence Rabada, Marge Gallagher, and Jacqueline O’Shea.

Visitation and a Mass of Christian burial will be held at Divine Mercy parish on Friday, January 31st beginning at 10:00 with mass beginning at 11:00.  In lieu of flowers, any donations should be made to the Rosemont College in memory of Mary Monahan Fanelli ‘46 , Attn: Office of Alumni Relations, 1400 Montgomery Ave., Bryn Mawr, PA 19010 or to Divine Mercy Parish, 108 W. Cherry St, Shenandoah, PA.

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