Aideen O’Malley Cooney, a resident of Cathedral Village in Philadelphia, died on January 30, 2017. In recent years, before moving home to Philadelphia in 2013, she had also lived in Alexandria, Virginia, where a number of her children and their families lived. She was 79 years old.
Aideen Cooney was born in Chestnut Hill, PA on October 23, 1937, the sixth of eight children of Inez FitzPatrick O’Malley of Chestnut Hill and William Gresham O’Malley of Buffalo, NY. She was educated at the Academy of the Assumption, Ravenhill, in East Falls, graduating in 1955. She attended Good Counsel College in White Plains, NY before returning home to Philadelphia and working at The Legal Intelligencer for several years. In 1958, she married Wallace Philip Cooney and together they raised seven children at their home in Wyndmoor. Mr. Cooney died in 2013.
Mrs. Cooney participated in numerous theatrical, often comedic, productions at The Stagecrafters Theater in Chestnut Hill, and in many community shows, both in Springfield Township and in Virginia when she lived there. She also taught English at Norwood Fontbonne Academy for several years when her children were attending the school. She had varied interests and was, among other things, an excellent athlete in her youth. Her greatest commitment, however, was to her faith and church, and for many years she participated in choirs and served both as a lector and Eucharistic Minister at masses, at her home parish of Our Mother of Consolation in Chestnut Hill and at St. Mary’s Church in Alexandria, VA. She was a longtime member of the Philadelphia Cricket Club.
She is survived by her sister, Kristin O’Malley Russo of St. Davids, PA and brother, Hilaire J. O’Malley of New York City; her sister in law, Janet Chark of Rye, NY; and her seven children and their spouses, including, Philip A. and Marney Cooney of Southlake, TX; W. Gresham and Rita Cooney of Oreland, PA; Ellen Cooney Marrin and her husband David, of Berkeley, CA; Wallace R. and Catherine Cooney, of Alexandria, VA; Christopher P. and Gina Cooney of Flourtown, PA; Aideen Cooney Briggs and her husband Payson, of Cincinnati, OH; and, Shelagh Cooney Roberts and her husband Kyle, also of Alexandria, VA. She is also survived by 20 grandchildren: Philip Cooney (Jennifer), Gresham Cooney, Polley Cooney, David Marrin, Kathleen Cooney, Thomas Cooney, Catherine Cooney, Patrick Cooney, Ellie Marrin, Patrick Cooney, Billy Marrin, Henry Briggs, Ruth Cooney, Joseph Cooney, Margaret Briggs, Lucy Roberts, Payson Briggs, Ellen Roberts, William Cooney, and Fiona Roberts.
Visitation will be held on Saturday, February 4, 2017 at 9 a.m. at Our Mother of Consolation Church in Chestnut Hill, followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at 10 a.m. Interment will follow at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Cheltenham, PA.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Religious of the Assumption, 1001 47th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19143.