Mary Margaret Jeffrey

Mary Margaret Jeffrey, 95, of Watauga, Texas entered eternal rest on Friday, Feb 13, 2026 from complications of several minor illnesses. Mary was born Jan 17, 1931, the eldest daughter among a sibling group including three brothers (Johnny, James, Michael,) and three additional sisters (Agnes, Madge, Imelda,) to Irish immigrants from Donegal, County Donegal and Kilmihil, County Clare, Ireland. John Kevin Learnihan (b.1894) and Brigid Ann Maguire (b. 1894) raised these seven Learnihan children in Detroit, Michigan, after each entering the U.S. at different times through Ellis Island in NYC. Mary’s parents first met amidst the large Irish immigrant community in Kansas City, Missouri, their initial U.S. destination. There in Kansas City at the Redemptorist Church, two Learnihan brothers met and ultimately married two Maguire sisters, but not before John Learnihan served in the Cavalry in World War I.

Relocating to Detroit for work, the Learnihan family grew up in the literal shadow of the Ambassador Bridge, one block from the famous Basilica of St Anne (the 2 nd oldest continuously operating Catholic parish in the U.S.) Mary and her siblings enjoyed living amidst different ethnic neighborhoods of 1930s-1940s Detroit, memorizing all their Catholic School prayers in Gaelic, Latin, Polish and English. 

Mary was a model student, a winner of prestigious academic awards and a favorite of the Immaculate Heart of Mary nuns who believed they were raising a future missionary nun - until Mary learned one day about big spiders in Africa . At St. Vincent de Paul Catholic School in Detroit, Mary won an college scholarship pre-1950 but had to decline it because her father had become disabled, all her brothers were away in World War II, she was the oldest at home, and she and her mother needed to support the family. A favorite teacher at St Vincent de Paul Catholic School, Sr Catherine Francis Mallon, particularly loved Mary and kept in touch through the rest of her life. Sr Catherine Francis became the famous source of an ‘immortal’ line of human breast cancer cells, titled MCF-7 (see Wikipedia,) the oldest and purest standard in the world, that has provided living, multiplying, unmutated genes that have miraculously survived more than 50 years (usually only weeks) and are amazingly still in living use in cancer studies today.

One of Mary’s many jobs was working at the original Vernor’s Ginger Ale plant in 1940s Detroit. Here, she met a tall, handsome French-Canadian man, Dennis Bernard Jeffrey. They wed in 1953 and raised six handsome sons. Dennis, became a Wayne County Sheriff’s Deputy (Detroit,) and Lieutenant over the Northland Center Police Department for the then-largest shopping mall in the world (1954) - Northland Shopping Center, where he worked for decades, including during the Detroit riots of the 1960s. 

When the youngest of Mary’s children was in 4 th grade (1973, she was 42,) Mary entered college for the first time. Years later she had earned her Associates and Bachelor’s Degrees in Religious Education with 4.0 GPAs, became a Catholic School Teacher for 30+ years, later earning her Masters Degrees in Religious Education (Cyril & Methodius Seminary) and completing her Masters in Theology coursework (St, Mary’s of San Antonio) at the age of 75. She, previously, also earned a Sacred Scripture Certificate from the Kino Institute in Phoenix. Up through age 94 Mary was still doing homework and driving herself to Deacon Petzold’s weekly Bible Study classes at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Keller, Texas.

Upon leaving Detroit and their beloved St. Priscilla’s Parish in 1987, Dennis & Mary followed sons to the DFW area for 5 years, then Tempe-Mesa, Arizona (as a Christ the King Catholic Church School teacher, for 10 more years,) then to Austin, Wichita Falls, and Watauga Texas across the last 25 years. In each locale they helped raise, and lavished love upon, grandchildren who, to this day, love them so dearly for influencing their young lives.

Dennis & Mary’s six sons are Dennis, Patrick (fiancée to Lori,) Timothy, Brian (married 45 years to Lisa,) Christopher (married 26 years to Patricia,) and Keith. Keith graciously left Florida to come to Texas and become the full-time, primary caregiver for Mary in her final ten months of life.                 Dennis & Mary have 14 grandchildren: Dennis III married to Smruti, Aurora married to Berne, Orion married to Roxanna, PJ married to Ashley, Mary, Timothy (recently deceased,) James, Meghan, Jason, Jonathan married to Emma, Grace, Isabella, Sarah, and Joseph. Additionally, 9 great-grandchildren are Seth, Ian, Jai, Dev, Maximilian, Alessandra, Nicholas, Isaac & Aidan.

Mary’s is a testament to life based upon commitment to family, responsibility and faith in Jesus Christ. Apart from commonly being head of the Religion Dept at her Catholic schools, and raising six altar-boy sons, she is a long-time lector and extraordinary minister of holy communion, a parish administrator of family baptism classes, and held more than a dozen ministry roles in various parishes from Women’ Guild, Altar Society to the Head of Christ Renews His Parish. She loves her children, grands and greats, loves beautiful red cardinals, memorizing and writing poetry, scripture study, reading to children and story-telling (as a long-time member of the Detroit Story-Telling League.) Oh, and Mary loves St. Patrick’s Day!

Mary Margaret Jeffrey will be interred at the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church Columbarium in Keller, Texas, with husband Dennis, who passed in 2018, at 87. They were married 64 years.