Mary Lou Keigher

Mary Lou Keigher, 91, died of a fatal fracture in December 2015 in Los Alamos, NM, where she and her husband, Donald J. Keigher, had lived for 40 years.

Mary Lou Sweeney was born on March 11, 1924 in Mitchell, South Dakota, to Dr. James T. and Ellen Doyle Sweeney, the youngest of three sisters, a child of the Great Depression. Her father, a Dentist, had graduated from Northwestern University, but in Mitchell his patients often paid in produce, eggs and whatever they could. Mary Lou attended Mitchell’s Notre Dame Academy for 12 years, took piano lessons, knew everyone and was elected Homecoming queen twice.  After graduating in 1942, she moved to Los Angeles where her older sister, Mick, lived.  Relatives helped her land a job at Union Oil Co. of California, starting in the Mail Room.  By sharpening her shorthand skills, she was promoted to the typing pool.  She rented a room at The Clark House, a residence for young single women, and quickly made many more friends.

As World War II heated up in the Pacific, Mary Lou met many soldiers and sailors flooding through the West Coast.  She joined the Desert Battalion, a social organization of young women who attended dances on military bases beyond L.A. to raise morale, until one evening, she met Lt. (J.G.) Donald J. Keigher—“Jamie” to his mates on the U. S. S. Knapp, a Naval Destroyer---on a blind date.  Suddenly the two were together constantly, then just as suddenly, Jamie’s ship departed, back to the Pacific Theatre.   Jamie’s only means of communicating with Mary Lou then was by writing long, hand-written letters to her, almost daily!  She responded by typing newsy reports about the home-front.  And a courtship began blossoming between her Royal typewriter and his  “On Watch time” for writing, “up on the Bridge,” over the next year.  With him at sea, they exchanged over 200 love letters.

Years later, while re-reading one of these letters, Mary Lou pensively recalled, “He was really smitten.”    They were married in Alhambra, CA on March 2, 1946, and honeymooned by driving Jamie’s father’s Chevy roadster cross country to Wilmington, where his “name” was D.J. among the Keighers.

Lt. and Mrs. Keigher lived in Boston for six months, until the Navy discharged him, and they resettled themselves in Chicago where housing was very scarce. Jamie worked in Fire Protection at Argonne National Laboratory, while taking night classes on the GI Bill. Mary Lou typed his papers as he earned a second Bachelor’s Degree at IIT.   After so much typing practice, Mary Lou started composing a monthly Family Letter that circulated within the Sweeney and Keigher families for decades.

By 1953 Mary Lou and Jamie had three young children, Sharon, Sheila & baby Kevin (who died tragically of leukemia a year later). They had moved to Richland, WA where Jamie worked for the Atomic Energy Commission at the Hanford Atomic Works for 16 years. One day in 1957, Mary Lou announced, “We are going to get a new baby brother, today!”.  . . . .  Five -week old Brian arrived as a bundle of happiness directly from God. Besides nurturing us, Mary Lou loved to sew, play bridge, and host parties; she took a serious interest in the childrens school work, was active in PTA, the Jaycee-ettes, the Altar Society, and other civic activities. As her children entered school, she took on part-time secretarial work for the Schools District.

After the fatal NASA explosion of Apollo XIII in 1969, Jamie took a federal job at NASA HQ in Washington DC. While he was at work, the family enjoyed lots of sight-seeing, Congressional Hearings, and Museums.  Mary Lou worked a part-time clerical job for a Private Detective Agency.

Jamie retired from the Federal government in 1972, then took a position at the National Scientific Laboratories in Los Alamos, NM, where Mary Lou shared a half-time position. She had already transitioned from a manual typewriter to the electric ones, but just a few years later she had to adjust all over again, to typing on these “new-fangled” word processors (computers), which she never enjoyed.

After a bout of colon cancer in 1986, she and Jamie both retired happily, for good.  With her beloved Selectric Typewriter at home, Mary Lou corresponded with friends and relatives throughout the country and composed the Family Christmas letter annually with Jamie.  They loved travelling together and loved each other deeply.

Wherever she lived, Mary Lou made many dear friends who found her a beautiful, thoughtful, and busy woman, with a great love of beauty in flowers, mountains, clothes, and people of all kinds. She was deeply religious, modest and passionate about loving and respecting disadvantaged, disabled and elderly people. She could be outspoken, funny, and keenly sarcastic in speaking up for others.

Mary Lou once wrote in the Alumni book of her high school class Reunion that her life’s greatest achievements were, “Marrying the right man for me” and “Raising three independent children.”   We all were thoroughly blessed to have been loved by her throughout her life.

Mary Lou was preceded in death by her parents and two older sisters, Genevieve (Barnhart) and Marguerite (Moore). Her infant son, Kevin, died in 1954, as did her beloved grown son, Brian J. Keigher in 2003. She is survived by her two daughters, Sharon Keigher of Milwaukee, WI, and Sheila Keigher Sargent and her husband Charles Sargent of Quincy, MA. Mary Lou and Jamie were especially proud of their three gifted grandchildren, Kira Sargent and husband Ben Park of Boston, MA; Kathleen Sargent Read and husband Dan of Jersey, UK; Aaron Keigher and wife Katherine of Redwood City, CA and great-grandson, Henry Brian Keigher.

Cremation Rites were accorded and a Funeral Mass was held for Mary Lou on December 15, 2015 in Los Alamos.   The family will receive friends for a memorial visitation on Saturday, April 30, 2016 at St. Rose Catholic Church, 604 South Kankakee Street in Wilmington from 9:30 a.m. until time of Mass of Christian Burial 11:00 a.m. Reverend Paul Schweizer. O. Carm will officiate, and inurnment will follow in Mount Olivet Catholic Cemetery in Wilmington.

Family and friends may sign the guest book, upload photographs or share Mary Lou's memorial page by logging onto: www.BaskervilleFuneral.com

Local arrangements have been made under the direction and care of Baskerville Funeral Home in Wilmington. (815-476-2181)