Rosemary Ellen Brady

With immense sadness, members of the Brady family announce that their mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and aunt, Rosemary E. Brady, passed away on Jan. 20, 2017. Rosemary was 91 and died in NCH North Hospital after suffering cardiac arrest.

She lived a long and full life. Born in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, in 1925, Rosemary moved to Philadelphia as a young girl and went on to graduate from West Philadelphia Catholic Girls High School there. As a member of what is now called “the greatest generation,” she lived through the Great Depression of the 1930s and the years of World War II in the 1940s. She met her future husband, John B. (Jack) Brady, at a church dance in Philadelphia before he enlisted in the Army in 1944. They were married in 1946, after he returned from the war.

A few years after their marriage, Rosemary and Jack moved to Syracuse, New York, where he worked as a salesman for the Toledo Scales Corporation. This post eventually led to the creation of the family firm, J.B.Brady Inc., which sold and serviced Toledo Scales and other food machinery equipment throughout a large part of central New York State. Rosemary worked as office manager and bookkeeper. It became a vibrant company, which helped Rosemary and Jack put four children through college.

The couple began to travel to Southwest Florida in the late 1970s and moved here in the late 1980s after selling their business. (The company still operates under new ownership as Brady Systems.) The Bradys were active in Marco Island, including San Marco Catholic Church and at their community at Hideaway Beach. In 1999, the couple moved to Naples, where they lived at Lely Resort with their daughter, Ellen T. Brady, for a short time. In the early 2000s, after Jack’s death, Rosemary and Ellen moved to Aston Gardens in North Naples, where Rosemary lived until her death.

Rosemary was predeceased by her husband and by her daughter, Ellen, who died of complications from multiple sclerosis, in 2015. Rosemary is survived by her daughter Rosemary (Rose); her son John and his wife, Jacqueline; her son Michael and his husband, Garry Voskanyan; her granddaughter, Jennifer and husband Eric Henn and their children, Jackson and Avery; and her grandson, John and his partner Aja Richardson—as well as several beloved nieces and nephews and their families.

Visitation will be held at Hodges Funeral Homes at Naples Memorial Gardens, 525 111th Ave. N. at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, January 25. Immediately following, a Mass in celebration of Rosemary’s life will be held at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, 625 111th Ave. N. at Noon. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in Rosemary’s name to the National MS Society (nationalmssociety.org).