Ellen I. “Ellie” Delaney

Ellen  Ita Delaney (nee Cunningham) age 97, peacefully at her Hingham home on July 6, 2013; the last of the seven children of Michael and Bridget (Keaveney) Cunningham. Born in Rushestown, Newbridge, County Galway, Ireland in 1915 just before the Easter Rising, Ellie came to America in 1937 and lived in Chestnut Hill, Beacon Hill, Louisburg Square, and Dorchester. Prevented from returning to Ireland because of the War, she settled in America, met and married George F. Delaney in 1944, also from  Newbridge, and in 1949 became a United States citizen.

 Ellen is survived by four children: Margaret M. Wilbur of Hingham (Norman); George F. Delaney, Jr. of Mechanicsburg, PA (Patricia); Ellen T. Delaney of Hingham; and Cathleen A. Delaney (Michael Costello) of Weymouth, and loving nieces and nephews in Ireland, England, and America. Ellen was grandmother to seven and great-grandmother to five. Predeceasing her were her husband of 62 years, George F. Delaney (2006) and their daughter, Patricia Agnes Delaney (1962).

 Ellen was a long-time member of St. Mark’s Church in Dorchester, and has been a faithful parishioner of St. Paul’s in Hingham since 1975. Throughout her ten decades of life, Ellen mastered the art of living simply, always valuing people over things. She was known for her kindly smile and gleaming eyes; her wit, wisdom, perceptiveness, and humor; her non-complaining nature, work ethic, insatiable curiosity, love of cooking, and her devotion to her family. She invariably took pleasure in the successes and accomplishments of others and, to the end, was grateful for any kindness shown to her. In the words of one of her treasured caregivers, “I tell her, I want to become just like you.”

 Ellen believed most of life’s challenges could be accommodated more easily by sitting at the kitchen table in conversation with friends and/or family, with a fresh pot of brewed tea, followed always by another, and a serving of Irish bread. Often her words upon parting were not “Good-bye,” but “God love ye.” She was a faith-filled woman and a mighty woman, and she will be missed in equal measure.

Relatives and friends are respectfully invited to attend the visiting hours on Tuesday  4-8 PM in the Pyne Keohane Funeral Home, 21 Emerald St. Hingham. A Celebration of Life Service will be held in the funeral home on Wednesday morning at 9:15am prior to the Funeral Mass in St. Paul’s Church, Hingham at 10AM. Burial in New Calvary Cemetery, Boston.  In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to St. Paul’s School, 147 North St. Hingham, MA 02043-1820.