Mary Pender Johnston 17 Feb 1913 – 25 Sept 2007

Mary Pender Johnston was born on 17 February 1913 to Kate Pender (Murphy) and Robert Pender in Liverpool. A younger brother, James, followed. Mary and Jimmy were double first cousins to our Murphy parents. This is because Michael married Mary Pender and Kate, Da’s sister, met Mary Pender’s brother, Robert, at their wedding. So, two sets of siblings married which made for a close genetic match, hence the term ‘double first cousins’. Mary and Da’s children were much taken with this close connection and were very fond of each other. Mary did not know her father very well. Kate Pender (Murphy) went to work for Cunard and she arranged for her mother Susan Murphy of Mullaghbawn to look after Mary and Jimmy. Susan took them to Mullaghbawn and they lived in the family cottage, Shanroe. Mary remembers playing with Bonnie and Jack O’Hanlon who were the children of Sarah O’Hanlon, the proprietor of O’Hanlon’s Bar in Mullaghbawn. Mary went to school in Mullaghbawn up to the age of 14. Her Teachers were Mrs. McCreesh and Miss Hollywood and she was also taught by nuns. Mary lived for several years in Mullaghbawn. When Mary was 14, Kate took them to live with her in New York City. She married a man called Daly and had a daughter who had a son, John. John Daly, Mary’s nephew, lives in Ohio and he has remained in contact with her. Mary always spoke very highly of her education in Mullaghbawn. It stood her in great stead in New York. Mary went to work at Saks Fifth Avenue at a young age. She made friends very easily and it was through these friends that she started to attend night classes. Her education in Mullaghbawn really came into play at this time because she was quite a bit more advanced than the other students particularly in reading. When Mary would talk about these times and the people she knew she always said, ‘..and they were very nice.’ This was a recurrent theme with Mary; she was always appreciative of friendship and was a very good friend herself to other people. Mary eventually went to work for the Bell Telephone Company in New York. The Bell Telephone Company Building is very close to the site of the Twin Towers in Manhattan and obviously predates them. When the US joined the Second World War, men were being called up and companies had to release them. Bell Telephone set up a work shadowing programme for employees to learn how to fulfil the functions left vacant by men going off to war. Mary joined this programme and was assigned to shadow a young man from Brooklyn, Bill Johnston. They obviously made an impression on each other because when Bill returned from the war, he and Mary got married. Bill would often say, ‘God bless the Telephone Company’ in our house and of course this would have been in relation to his good fortune in meeting Mary! Mary built a very successful career in Bell Telephone. She was something of a pioneer as well for women because she gained an MBA in the 1950s at a time when business careers and such advanced degrees were very much the preserve of men. Susan Murphy, Mary’s Grandmother, and Da’s siblings, Frank and Maryann lived in Manhattan on Amsterdam Avenue. When our parents, Paddy and Lily Herlihy, came to New York in 1947, Mary and Bill would see our parents in their apartment at 428 W 47 St. On a Wednesday after work, Mary would go to our parents’ apartment for tea and cakes with our Mother and Uncle Frank. Mary would give Frank money to help with household expenses on these occasions. She had a great regard for Da and his family. When Frank passed away in Mullaghbawn, many of the Murphys came from Liverpool for the funeral. Mary arranged to pay for the catering afterwards; she told me that Sarah O’Hanlon took a very long time to send the bill. These are examples of Mary’s generosity over the years. During our childhood in Jamaica, Queens, Mary and Bill were frequent visitors to our house. They were great friends of our parents. They were always very generous and they would always arrive with a six pack for the kids………….of Pepsi. This went down very well with us. In addition, they talked to us and took a great interest in us. Mary and Bill bought a house in upstate New York in the late 50s for weekends and vacations. I used to say to Mary that she and Bill were Yuppies before they were even invented. She smiled in acknowledgement of this. I stayed at this house twice, once in the winter and once in the summer. They were so kind to do this. They took my sister Maureen with me as well on one occasion and Mary laughed over the years as this little girl declared, when asked what she would like for breakfast, ‘I wanna hamburger.’ I went up in the summer with Patti O’Hanlon when she was staying with us. The next summer, Pauline and Patti O’Hanlon, Marie and Kitty Cannon came to stay with us in Jamaica and Mary and Bill took them all up to this house. They loved their Murphy people and were convivial and generous company. When the Murphy reunions were organised, Mary was very excited and wanted to know all about them. We tried to get Mary to come; we even put a plan together for Jim Herlihy’s wife, Catherine, to fly to New York from San Francisco and accompany Mary to Liverpool but Mary felt she was not up to it. What she did to mark her fond regard for the Murphys was to donate $2000 to each of the reunions of 2000 and 2003 because she told me that she ‘would like to buy everybody a drink’. That is how we provided the champagne receptions for those two occasions. Mary was an avid reader and when James Herlihy and James Murphy published novels, she got copies and read them. She thought James Herlihy’s thriller was more for men and she enjoyed James Murphy’s book because it brought back memories of Liverpool where she had been born and had lived in her early years. She read several books a week and was very up on current affairs. When Mary and Bill got married they moved into their apartment in Fresh Meadows. This apartment complex was built for men and their families returning from military service. I think they moved there in 1947. They kept the apartment in excellent condition. One of the things that Mary particularly valued was the fact that a suburban branch of Saks Fifth Avenue was across the street. It was there for many years and Mary was a loyal customer until it closed some years ago. They lived full and happy lives in this apartment. When Bill passed away, Mary continued to live there and it was here that she passed away on 25 September 2007.

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Mary's funeral is on Monday 1 October in New York. Jim & Des Herlihy will be attending, Johnny Daly, Mary's nephew will be there as well.

Many thanks to Des Herliy for providing the biography and photos, and to all the Herlihy family for their devotion, support and love of this remarkable lady. God Bless Her