M. Dorothy Walsh

Walsh, M. Dorothy January 21, 2009 [click here to email online condolence]

M. Dorothy Walsh, 77, of Forest City, died Wednesday evening at the James Lawrence Kernan Hospital, Baltimore, MD after battling brain cancer. She was the wife of the late Gerard Walsh who died in 1972.

Born, December 13, 1931, in New York City, she was the daughter of the late Michael and Margaret Franco Hynes. Dorothy was a member of St. Agnes Church, Forest City. She was a former elementary school secretary of the Forest City Regional School District from 1973 to 1998, after retirement she devoted herself full time to volunteer activities in her community and church.

In the late 1970s and mid-1980s, Mrs. Walsh was responsible for bringing Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen and Mother Teresa of Calcutta to Northeastern PA as featured guest speakers at events she also organized. In 1982, she traveled to Italy and was a guest at the Vatican of the Vicar General of His Holiness Pope John Paul II. She wrote extensively on religious issues, and was a featured columnist for The Forest City News. She also contributed a chapter for a book featuring the writings of Catholic women.

Mrs. Walsh was a past president of the Scranton Apostolate for the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart, and she also worked tirelessly to promote prolife issues. In 1998, she initiated a weekly Holy Hour, which became known as the Divine Mercy Prayer Group, that met every Thursday in one of the churches of the Roman Catholic Community of Forest City. She was very active in her parish, and was a longtime lector and former religious education teacher.

Mrs. Walsh was a member of the Catholic Radio Advisory Board in the Diocese of Scranton, working to ensure that northeastern Pennsylvania had access to quality Catholic radio programming. Mrs. Walsh was a great friend and supporter of the Little Sisters of the Poor in Dunmore, chairing a fundraising bike-a-thon and helping to raise awareness of the Sisters' work and the Holy Family Residence. She was a former volunteer at Ronald McDonald House in Scranton, PA, and was a frequent organizer of pilgrimages to religious sites and events.

Mrs. Walsh was an active, lifelong volunteer in her church and community, but she treasured her role as a mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, and great-grandmother above all others. She believed that sharing her faith with her family was her greatest achievement.

Surviving are two sons Gerard and wife Irene Walsh, Owings Mills, MD and Michael and wife Maureen Walsh, Boston, MA; two daughters Maureen and husband Michael McGrath, Laurel, MD and Dorothy and husband Rick Turano, Browndale; 14 grand children Mary Morris, Ricky, Chrissy, Kevin, Matthew, Elizabeth, Michael, Joanie, Christina, Claire, Joseph, Alice, Anna, and Daniel; 3 great grandchildren Monica, Mathias, and Hannah; one brother Michael Hynes and wife Jane, Branson, MO; a sister-in-law Marilyn Sloan, Reading; nieces and nephews.

Funeral will be Monday at 10am from the Kevin M. Lesjack Funeral Home, 513 Main Street, Forest City, with Mass of Christian Burial at 10:30am in St. Joseph's Church, Forest City. Interment in St. Agnes Cemetery, Forest City. Viewing Sunday from 4-7 pm.

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