Mary Agnes Moroney Tapp
Mom, great-grandmother, artist, chocolate lover. Born on Feb. 2, 1924, in Chicago; died on Jan. 29, 2015, in Oakville, Ont.; of heart failure, aged 90.
Mary Moroney grew up in Chicago in the 1920s and '30s, a time she kept alive with colourful tales about seeing the early talkies at the local movie palace, riding the Elevated transit line to her first job at Marshall Field's department store, and visiting the futuristic 1933 World's Fair.
Mary was captivated by the golden age of Hollywood and was an avid member of the drama and glee clubs at her Catholic high school. When her father fell ill with pneumonia during the Depression and her family could no longer afford rent, she was sent to live with relatives. As his condition worsened, Mary, on a first-name basis with the saints, made a solemn promise: If he lived, she would become a nun. When he rallied, after a long year, Mary turned to her favourite teacher and asked it would be okay if she took her Don Ameche scrapbook to the convent. Sister Laura told her that God probably wouldn't hold her to her promise and that she might be better suited to a different kind of service.
Thus began Mary's path to her true calling. One afternoon in 1946, a group of radio students toured the NBC studios where she was working as "girl Friday" on a popular radio show. Among them was Jimmy Tapp, an Ottawa native returning to civilian life after serving as a naval officer in the Second World War. One look at her, and that was that. After an 11-day courtship, they married and moved to Montreal, where Jimmy began a career as a radio and TV personality, and Mary became the devoted mother of five: Nancy, Rourke, Judy, and twins, Colleen and Stephen. Mary came from a small family and always wanted a houseful of kids.
In the 1960s, she and Jimmy built a home on the shores of Lake Saint-Louis in Beaconsfield, Que., where she created beautiful oil paintings and taught art to Grade 3 students every Friday, a volunteer position that started with one of her children's classes and continued for many years.
A lover of literature, from Pearl Buck to Khalil Gibran, and an advocate for civil rights, Mary also embraced her silly side, laughing uproariously at the antics of Monty Python and telling jokes whose punchlines she never quite got right. She was a superlative cook, known for her cookies and squares; and a talented seamstress who made Halloween costumes, prom dresses and dorm-room curtains with precision and flair.
Her passion for life was woven into the fabric of her children's days. From orders to drop what we were doing to come watch the sun set on the lake, to dreamy conversations about the universe on starry summer nights, she infused every day with light, wonder and an appreciation of the beauty of the world.
By 1987 all five children were settled in the Toronto area, so Mary and Jimmy moved to Oakville, the town on Lake Ontario that reminded her of Beaconsfield. After Jimmy's death in 2004, she continued to live for her family, which grew to include eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
When her big heart finally wore out and we gathered for her funeral mass, rays of sunlight streamed through the stained-glass windows of St. Andrew's, a little white church near the lake, bathing us all in her unmistakeable light.
Colleen Tapp is Mary's youngest daughter.