MAUREEN MARGARET GALLAGHER (nee McCormick),
born in St. Louis to Rolla Hugh McCormick and Jessie Marcella Lawrence on January 1, 1937, baptized in the Church of St. Gabriel the Archangel, died on May 1, 2020 as the sun was rising over her home in Little Rock, Ark.
Her heart never left the south St. Louis of her childhood, where the roots of many of her closest lifelong relationships were established and nurtured. She celebrated her 8th grade graduation from Mallinckrodt School in 1951 and was a member of the Beta Chapter of the Sigma Phi Gamma sorority and the 1955 graduating class of Cleveland High School.
She met her future husband, Donald Joseph Gallagher, while attending the University of Missouri in Columbia. She and Donald were wed on June 21, 1958 at St. Joan of Arc Church. They raised two children together, Glennon and Karen, surrounded by a wealth of friends and family. She remained Donald’s faithful wife in sickness and in health until his death in 1999.
Throughout the years, she was room mother, den mother, seamstress extraordinaire, style maven, gardener, creator of culinary delights, bandager of skinned knees and toes, term paper critic, grammar nazi, arbiter of squabbles, fearless opinion-giver, coupon clipper, girl Friday, Jeopardy! aficionado, Italophile, bridge partner, family genealogist, art and architecture buff, international traveler, devoted daughter, sister, mother, grandmother, helpmate, caregiver. Above all, she was stoic. She retired from the John M. Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis after more than a decade assisting its professors. Although she admired art and architecture, her family and friends were her greatest treasures. She is survived by her children, Glennon Gallagher (Jennifer) and Karen Watkins (Ted Standerfer), grandchildren Claire Louise Watkins, Patrick Gallagher, Josh Standerfer (Jennifer), Samantha Siebert (Patrick), Nicholas and Amy Lewandowski, great-grandchildren; brother and sister in-law John and Margaret Gallagher, nieces and nephews Patricia, Thomas, Robert, Joan, William, Steven, Carol, Laura, Kathy, John, Michael, David; by her beloved cousin Patricia Weiss and family; and by her cat, Cleopatra. She is preceded in death by her parents and by her only brother, Lawrence Stephen McCormick.
May God hold her in the palm of his hand.
Her family would like to thank Arkansas Hospice caregivers for their lovingkindness and support during her final days. Donations in her memory may be offered to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (Nami.org) or to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (jdrf.org). No funeral service will be held. Her family may be reached at 1400 Mellon Street, Little Rock, Ark., 72207.
Cremation Services of Arkansas (501)313-5431 www.cremationservicesofarkansas.com.