Mary Teresa Murtagh's Obituary
Mary Teresa Murtagh
Teresa in her 87th year died peacefully on November 29, 2022 after a short illness. She was surrounded by her much-loved family and will be dearly missed.
Teresa was born in Ireland in March of 1936 to the late John and Mary Fallon, as the seventh of nine children. Teresa grew up on a farm in Currafarry, County Galway, Ireland, and later earned a nursing degree and became a registered nurse. She decided in the early 1960s to travel to America for what she thought would be a short stay, first staying in Brooklyn, then in San Francisco, and then, if things went as planned, returning to Ireland. In San Francisco in 1965, however, she met a young Irish engineer named Bart Murtagh, whom she married in 1967. Teresa and Bart went on to have four children, and in 1974 moved to San Mateo, California, where they lived for the last 48 years.
As a mother, Teresa was devoted to her family. In any given week in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, Teresa was carpooling kids to and from soccer practice, baseball practice, and music practice; she was a "Room Mom" and a "Team Mom"; and she still made time to maintain a home for herself, her husband, and her four children. While Bart was busy building a business in the early 1980s, Teresa worked as an RN at night, putting her children to bed, driving to work and working for eight hours, returning in the morning, getting her kids off to school, sleeping while they were away, waking before they returned, driving to and from sports and music events (see above), making a quick dinner, and starting the whole process again at night.
She had a strong Catholic faith, going to mass every Sunday. She loved music (e.g., Elvis [when he was young], John Denver, and anything sung by Pavarotti). She would see her friends frequently: the Boyles, the Friels, the Shaws, the Murrays, the Hickeys, the Sweeneys, the Sacramento Fallons, the Kennellys, the McNabs, the Busbys, the Kerrs, the Collettas, the Jensens, the Lambs, the Shapiros, and the Eckarts. When she went to parties, she was relentlessly pursued to sing, which she did on very rare occasions. In November of each year, she would spend evenings at the dining room table, writing long letters for the holidays to the Fallons and Murtaghs in Ireland. She also baked weekly loaves of Irish soda bread and brown bread, which became the envy of any Irish expatriate who longed for something from home.
Teresa is survived by her beloved husband of 55 years, Bart; her four children, Paul (Laura) (Studio City, CA), Gerry (Pacific Palisades, CA), Deirdre (Eric) (San Mateo, CA), and Alan (San Mateo, CA); her nine grandchildren: Joseph, Daniel, Finn, Jack, Seamus, Adam, Liam, Oliver, and Ainsley; and her brothers Jack Fallon (Boyle, Ireland) and Joseph Fallon (Mullingar, Ireland) and her sister Elizabeth Young (Dublin, Ireland). Teresa is predeceased by her brothers William (Willie), Thomas (Tommy), Anthony (Tony), Francis (Francie), and her sister Ann (Annie) Keating.
Teresa will be remembered for her extraordinary kindness, her devotion to her family, and her beautiful singing voice that moved anyone who heard it. She will be greatly missed. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam dílis.
Services will be held at Skylawn Memorial Park in San Mateo, California on Monday, December 19, 2022, beginning at 11:00 a.m. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that charitable contributions in memory of Teresa be made to Brain Support Network, Post Office Box 7264, Menlo Park, California 94026, www.brainsupportnetwork.org.
What’s your fondest memory of Mary?
What’s a lesson you learned from Mary?
Share a story where Mary's kindness touched your heart.
Describe a day with Mary you’ll never forget.
How did Mary make you smile?
