Rose Mary Kelly, of Fayetteville, passed away Saturday, November 29, surrounded by the deep love and eternal gratitude of her family.

Rose Mary was born in October 1935 in Syracuse to parents Joseph and Clara Hennessy and lived in the Syracuse area her entire life. She was a proud native of the North Side, along with her older brothers Sonny and Bill and older sister Eileen. She moved to the Fayetteville-Manlius area with her beloved husband, Dick, and their young family in 1956.

Rose Mary attended Catholic schools on the North Side of Syracuse, graduating from St. John the Baptist. She attended Central City Business Institute.

Life changed forever for Rose Mary when she met Dick Kelly at Fourth of July fireworks at Drumlins in 1953. They married in September 1954, sealing an unbreakable, 71-year bond of love, companionship and adventures both at home and abroad.

She was a devoted homemaker, raising four children surrounded by love, faith and respect. In the 1970s and 1980s, she worked as a sales representative for Polaroid and Marvella.

An important desire of Rose Mary to Dick during their whirlwind courtship was to see the world, and she and Dick fulfilled that wish for the next 50 years as they traveled to all corners of the globe. Extensive travel helped to satisfy her unquenchable curiosity about people and places.

Spending time in Daytona Beach, Port Orange and New Smyrna Beach, Florida, was an annual highlight for Rose Mary and Dick for 60 years. Those Florida trips always included family and an ever-growing number of friends, including the friends of their children.

Family and social connections were the bedrock of Rose Mary’s life. She never had an unkind word toward anyone, and strangers were simply friends she hadn’t met yet. She purposely filled her reams of journals recounting her life with “only happy things,” a positive attitude and resiliency developed despite losing her mother and one of her brothers by age 12.

They say rolling stones gather no moss, and Rose Mary and Dick were shiny stones. Their activity schedule was tireless, always including others. She enjoyed golf, tennis, cross-country skiing, reading, walking, bargain shopping and dinners with friends, especially at their cherished Riley’s on the North Side.

She loved to learn about the work and social life of her children, grandchildren, extended family, friends and guests, an almost interview-like curiosity that always was centered on others, not herself. If in person, those conversations sometimes took place over a glass of Chardonnay and finished with the Left-Right-Center dice game.

Rose Mary was committed to her Catholic faith for her entire life and was a communicant of Immaculate Conception Church in Fayetteville since 1956, willing to “hit the beads” for anyone in need, including those she didn’t know. She put her deep devotion into action through extensive charity work, including with Unity Acres, Catholic Charities and the Bishop Foery Foundation. She sang in the choir and taught religious education at Immaculate Conception and served as a Eucharistic minister at Loretto.

Surviving are her loving husband, Dick; sons Rick (Mary), Joe (Melissa Short) and Paul (Sheila); daughter Anne Glenny (Dennis); grandchildren Chris, Catherine, Erin, Devin, Sam, Sarah, Keelin, Bryce, Landon, Omar and Brian; and great-grandchildren Hunter, Finley and Rowan. She was predeceased by daughter Mary Beth.

There will be no calling hours, per Rose Mary’s request. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 11a.m. Friday, December 5 at Immaculate Conception Church in Fayetteville. Private burial will be in Immaculate Conception Cemetery in Fayetteville.

The Kelly family is thankful for contributions in Rose Mary’s memory to Meals on Wheels of Eastern Onondaga County at moweoc.com. The organization is special to the family, as Dick has served as a Meals on Wheels driver for 33 years and continues to deliver meals at age 97.

Condolences, www.shepardsonfh.com.