Mary Ann Cafferty

7/11/1954 – 2/25/2020

Mary Ann Cafferty (Cooper) died Feb. 25^th aged 65, after a four-year battle with cancer.  Mary Ann fought the good fight, she was a model patient, and was not a whiner, nor expressed self-pity. 

She grew up in the Rocky Mountain states, following her parents (Bob & Patty Cooper) as Bob’s job as an engineer saw them living in Idaho, Utah, & Montana, later moving to Nebraska with her husband, Kim, in 1981. She was known to generations of children in Omaha and Gretna through her work as a Sunday School (and later, CCE) teacher at Church of the Cross, Peace Presbyterian, St. Brigit’s and St. Charles Boromeo churches, having embraced Catholicism late in life. She was also an active member of the Scottish Society of Nebraska for several years.  As a college student, she was a ski instructor on week-ends, and she also played Piano and studied British literature & the Classics

Those who knew her will remember her ferocious intelligence and wit, her willing and fast full smile, dedication to duty, and her phenomenal talent as a needlewoman, spinner, knitter, and Chef. While she came to feel at home in Nebraska, she always loved the mountains.  Hiking and skiing were by far her favorite outdoor activities, even if she spent more time working in her lawn, gardens, and pastureland outside Gretna.  She was also a very private person and could at times display her dad’s temper!

She was remarkable in her attention to detail and conscientiousness.  She never liked wasted time.  If not cooking and exploring various cultures through food, film, travel and literature; she would take part in artistic endeavors like Ukrainian egg painting, spinning wool, making curtains, or quilts, painting the house again and again and again remaking it in a new image and new style- maintaining what she believed was her role in every art of the hand.  She always did what she believed ought to be done.

“Mac” was smart.  She could see farther down the road than most of us.  There was seemingly nothing she couldn’t do…really well: she designed, architected, and helped build three houses, helped to start and maintain a working hay farm, and worked alongside her husband, Kim, to turn a one-truck Johnstone Supply warehouse into a family business that has grown to over 100 employees in 8 locations.  Mary Ann was a very good partner in business, in life, in child rearing, in gardening, in farming, in just about everything.  She handled all corporate legal work 39 years and impressed auditors, accountants and attorneys at the job she did, and was once offered a job by our attorney! She did all things exceptionally well.  She ran a tight ship!

Mary Ann is survived by her husband, Kim, their daughters Katherine Fletcher and Sarah Gray, and eight grandchildren, as well as her brother John Cooper, sister Susan Farnsworth and their families. She left the world a better place than she found it, and will be sorely missed.

Visitation Friday (3/6/20) 5:00 – 7:00 PM with Vigil Service 6:30 PM at Roeder Mortuary. Funeral Service Saturday (3/7/20) 10:30 AM at St Charles Borromeo Catholic Church 7790 S 192nd St. Gretna, NE. Interment Holy Sepulchre Cemetery at Gretna, NE. In Lieu of Flowers Memorials to Breast Cancer Awareness.
Roeder Mortuary, Inc. – Gretna Chapel 11710 Standing Stone – Gretna, NE – 402-332-0090 www.RoederMortuary.com