Mary Theresa (Pasquerella) McGonagle, who grew up in Everett, graduated from Everett High School, raised her family in the city and worked as a switchboard operator, seamstress, teacher’s aide and school secretary before retiring in her 70s, has died. She spent her last years at Benchmark at Rye, New Hampshire.
She was born in Charlestown, in her parents’ phrase “in the shadow of Bunker Hill,” to Ralph Pasquerella of Avellino, Italy, and Mary A. Hennessey-Pasquerella. The family moved to Everett when she was young. Out of high school she went to work for AT&T as an operator, where she learned to keep a smile in her voice while saying “Number, please.” She later sewed for Vogue Dolls in Malden, worked as an aide in the Everett Public Schools, and finished her working life as secretary at Matignon High School in Cambridge. She was a longtime member of Immaculate Conception parish in Everett before moving back to Charlestown and St. Mary’s, the church of her childhood. She quilted, knit, did needlepoint, made dolls and wove Nantucket baskets, and taught all of it to the next two generations.
Her husband of 61 years, Daniel J. McGonagle of Everett, died in 2009. She leaves her son, Michael D. McGonagle and his wife Marsha Schwarz of Wayland; her daughter, Teresa M. Comeau and her husband Richard of Seabrook, New Hampshire; her grandchildren, Dennis and his wife Taylor Murphy of Everett, Karen and her husband Patrick Shanahan of Swampscott, and Timothy and his wife Juanita of East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania; three great-grandchildren, Paige and Calvin Shanahan and Logan McGonagle; and nieces Stacie Lemerise, Marcie Stone, Linda Johnson and Julie Gregory and their families. Her brother Ralph J. Pasquerella and his wife Judith died before her.
A funeral Mass was celebrated August 12 at St. Mary’s Church in Charlestown, with burial at Woodlawn Cemetery in Everett. Arrangements were by the Salvatore Rocco and Sons Funeral Home, Everett. The family suggests donations to the Michael J. Fox Foundation or the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Compiled from information published by Salvatore Rocco & Sons Funeral Home, 331 Main Street, Everett. Photograph courtesy of the family via Rocco Funeral Home. This is our own summary, not the family’s obituary; read the full obituary and leave a condolence at the funeral home’s page on Legacy.com. Corrections: we will fix any error promptly.