Eileen F. McKenna 22 Feb 1919-26 April 2011 Born Eileen Imelda Finucane on 22 Feb 1919 in North Andover, Massachusetts, to Mary Shine and Thomas J. Finucane, both immigrants to America from County Cork, Ireland. She was one of eight brothers and sisters, all raised in Chester, Pa. and educated by the Sisters of Saint Joseph at Saint Robert's School, a background of which the family was always proud. When her father died after her first year of college, Eileen's older siblings paid her college expenses to assure her graduation from Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia in 1939. Married John H. McKenna in 1945 and began the life of a football coach's wife, moving from Philadelphia to Los Angeles in 1949, to Lexington, Va. in 1952, and to Atlanta, Ga. in 1966. She was a 37- year- cancer- survivor, a member of the Holy Water Club of Saint Patrick's Catholic Church in Lexington,Virginia, and member of Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Atlanta, through which she worked as a volunteer for the St. Vincent de Paul Society. She was a member of the Georgia Tech Women's Book Club, a founding member of Emory Senior University, now Senior University at Mercer, and served a term as president of that group. To keep her skills sharp, she studied art with local painters, earned her real estate license at age 63, and regularly enjoyed "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?" A lifelong lover of music and college sports, she followed the football and basketball teams of the schools where her husband had coached: Villanova University, Loyola of Los Angeles, Virginia Military Institute and Georgia Tech. Her keen humor and wit continued throughout her life. She was predeceased by all her seven siblings, husband, John, and son, Peter. Survived by daughters Kathleen (Matt) Robbins, Mary (Jim) Thorne, Margaret (Ira) Houck, son Stephen (Diane) McKenna, daughter-in-law Beth (Pete) McKenna, 13 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. There will be a Funeral Mass at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church, 2855 Briarcliff RD, NE Atlanta, GA. on Tues, 3 May at 10:30 a.m. Burial of ashes will be held in Virginia later this Spring. In lieu of flowers, donations could be sent to SmileTrain, Race for the Cure , or a favorite charity.
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