Mary Lawrice Tully

Mary L. Tully (nee. Beales) was born on December 28, 1941 to Vera and William Beales, the second of 4 Children (William, Cleo, and Edward). Mary grew up in Ozone Park, NY in foster care with her younger brother and sister. She attended Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary RC Church where she received her holy sacraments and attended John Adams High School.

In the summer of 1959, at Beach 98 Street, Mary met the love her life, Terence “Teddy” Tully of Co. Cavan Ireland, and that is when she said her life really began. They met, fell in love and Mary stayed true while he was stationed in Germany until his return in 1962 when they were married on August 11th. Mary and Teddy had six children together, Phylis, Terence Jr., Bernadette, Maura, Mairead, and Alysse. She spent her summers for many years in Jelly Stone Park (now Roundout Valley); first in the Cottages and then they moved on to a trailer. During those summers she enjoyed crafting (before it was a thing), bingo, cooking for all of the kids, potluck dinners, campfires and playing pranks. Mary and Teddy formed an extended family with the relationships they made that stayed with them the rest of their lives.

Anyone who knew Mary, knew how much she loved her family, the NY Mets, crosswords, the news (3 papers a day), doo wop, and maybe most of all the King himself, Elvis Presley. Her dream was always to visit Graceland, and in 2008, her nephew Billy fulfilled that dream. For years to come, anyone who would listen, would hear how Elvis and she had the same Chandelier (his was only bigger) and how every few feet she would get out of the car to scribe her name on the wall, much to her husband ire.

Through the course of Mary and Teddy’s fifty plus year love affair, their love never wavered. No matter what life dealt them they never let it affect the love that they had for each other. Mary and Teddy ended each day no matter what with an I love and a kiss good night, a lesson they passed on to their children. After she lost Teddy in 2017, Mary and her world were never the same.

On December 29th, Mary succumbed to a long battle held by her 3 girls and surrounded by her son-in-law, and adult grandchildren to join her big brother Bill, her sister Cleo, her daughters Phylis and Bernadette and her beloved Teddy. Mary is survived by her Son Terence Jr., her daughters Maura, Mairead, & Alysse, sons-in-law Christopher, Michael, Chris, and Massimo, and her grandchildren, Gabrielle, Robert, Caili, Alex, Katie, Liam, Sean, Terence III, Aedan, Mairead, Scarlett, Cavan, Bianca, Finnian, and Mazarine and many nieces, nephews and great-nieces and great-nephews. “A life that touches the hearts of others lives on forever.”