Alice Mary Cunningham

Born April 21, 1923 in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, Alice attended St. Charles’ Church grammar school, and graduated from Woonsocket Senior High School in June, 1940. As a child she was a familiar face in the neighborhood, where she and her brother shared a paper route delivering The Woonsocket Call and the Providence Sunday Journal, and where she sold Warren Brown Christmas cards door-to-door. After her high school graduation, she attended night school at Woonsocket High to study typing and shorthand, and she enrolled at Johnson-Wales Business College in Providence, where she became a master at working with office machines and small calculators. Following her training, she joined the staff of McCarthy’s Department store, where she worked for more than twenty years in the credit office as a bookkeeping machine operator, overseeing billing and accounts receivable. Like many of her generation, during World War II she also served as a nurse’s aid at Woonsocket Hospital. She retired from McCarthy’s in 1976.

After the passing of her father and her mother in Woonsocket, Alice moved to Merced, California in 1983 to be closer to her brother and extended family. She moved to The Orchard in Mesa in 1995, where she was an active member of the community and of All Saints’ Catholic Church.

Alice is survived by what she called “her kids”: nephew William H. Cunningham of Santa Ana, California (and wife Scot Cunningham); niece Karen J. Cunningham of Los Angeles, California (and husband Gary Karasik); niece Meredith M. Craig of Merced, California (and husband Jack); great nephews Brian Cunningham and Jonathan Craig; and great nieces Erin Cunningham and Melanie Craig.

A reception and celebration of Alice’s life will be held at her home on Saturday, April 5, 2014, at 2:00 p.m.

r the direction of Melcher Mortuary Mission Chapel & Crematory, Mesa, AZ.