Rose Mary O’Brien

October 26, 1942 - July 30, 2026

Rosemary was born in Jersey City, NJ. She grew up in an Italian American family living in a two-family house shared with aunts, uncles, and cousins. She graduated from Holy Family Academy, an all-girls high school that she was convinced gave as good an education as any college. Given her excellent historical knowledge, impressive vocabulary, beautiful handwriting, and professional success, that would be hard to dispute. Rosemary was a fairly strait-laced person, but she multiple times bragged that, while growing up, her family thought of her as somewhat of an ‘up-start’, which we think was her way of saying that she was kind of cool.

In high school, Rosemary was a member of the drum and bugle core as a flag carrier, and it was in that group that she met and fell for Eddie O’Brien, a James-Deanish guy who she married at just 20 years old. She and Eddie had two girls that Rosemary went on to raise on her own when he died unexpectedly, leaving her a widow at twenty-eight.

Rosemary and her daughters moved to Yorktown Heights, New York, where she stayed for most of her working life. She met John Booth when they were both part of a group who took the same bus to the city each day. Rosemary and John were friends for a long time, then partners, then later married for over twenty-five years. Together they were able to travel from China to Europe to Brazil to Alaska. They looked impressive when they danced at weddings and parties, they did the crossword together regularly, and they could not be beat at trivia. They both loved being grandparents, sharing beach vacations with their kids and grandkids in Dewey Beach, Delaware then at Lake Michigan. Holidays and visits with kids and grandkids were consistently priorities and among their favorite moments.

Professionally, Rosemary began working in the garment industry in NYC immediately after high school, using her skills in typing and shorthand. She worked her way up over many years, ultimately retiring as a marketing executive for a women’s clothing catalogue retailer. She was tenacious, with a stellar work-ethic and sense of responsibility. As an example of her perseverance, when Sears Roebuck moved their garment business to Chicago in the late 70’s and Rosemary was out of work, she went to the city daily, walking into businesses and basically knocking on doors seeking work, knowing she had daughters at home to care for. In desperation, she offered to work for free for a month at one showroom, promising to prove her worth. That showroom appreciated her drive and hired her with pay, and she did not let them down. Rosemary had close relationships with her co-workers and kept in touch with many after she retired. Given that Rosemary retired working side by side with accomplished business professionals and MBAs, we are ready to concede that both Holy Family Academy and Rosemary herself were indeed impressive.

As hardworking as she was, Rosemary was always a loving mother. She showed up in all sorts of ways as a mom- she attended multiple showings of every drama club production, stayed up late to type up written versions of high school essays, brought bagels to her daughter's college on weekends to feed groups of hungry cadets, and shared her love of travel by taking trips with both her daughters. During one spring break, a school-sponsored trip fell through, and mom swooped in to plan a last-minute mother-daughter trip to San Francisco, a week that still brings up fun memories of dim sum and cable cars.

After nearly 30 years living in New York, Rosemary retired, and she and John moved to East Lansing, Michigan where she was thrilled to be closer to some of her grandchildren, babysit if needed, and attend school and sporting events as often as possible. For a person who never cared about sports, Rosemary became very interested in baseball, basketball, and hockey when her grandchildren were playing, which was really kind of amusing to the rest of us. She got teary and overwhelmed at their choir concerts and was disappointed if she had to miss events. She was really their biggest fan in every way.

Also in Michigan, Rosemary made a close group of friends that she valued immensely. With them, she got involved in clubs and volunteer activities, had laughs, lunches, and ladies’ trips, and gave and received care and support.

Rosemary liked John Denver, Josh Groban, Englebert Humperdink, and the book When a Tree Grows in Brooklyn. We remember the People magazine cover of Tom Selleck as a young man that graced her closet door for a decade in the 80’s and we appreciated always being offered a Readers Digest to take home. She liked to make special dishes to feed friends and family, especially meatballs and sauce, almond crescent cookies at Christmas, and blueberry buckle on vacation. She enjoyed collecting lovely things and the fun of the ‘find’. Her collections included owls (which she got a bit carried away with), decorative boxes, canes, art from trips, and baseball cards with her grandson. She was generous in donating to those in need, supported marginalized communities, and believed in leadership who would try to bring about a just world that treats all people with respect.

Rosemary leaves behind her husband John, daughters Kat and Beth Ann, sons-in-law Gary and Chuck, grandchildren Nathan (Ella), Gracie (Liam), Rob (Erica), Amy, and Dennis, sister Lucille, Stepchildren Donald (Laura), John (Kelly), Tom (Tara), step grandchildren Trevor, Megan, Jordan, Sophie, Thomas, and Taylor. She is preceded in death by her parents Frank and Mary, first husband Edward, and grandson Charlie.