Marie Catherine Donnelly, of New Castle, Pennsylvania, died at her home on the morning of Saturday, May 9, 2026, surrounded by her children. She was ninety-three years old. The rosary she had carried for seventy-one years was in her hand.
Marie was born October 12, 1932, in New Castle, the eldest daughter of Patrick and Bridget Cavanaugh, immigrants from County Mayo, Ireland. She grew up on the south side of town, the second of nine children, and graduated from St. Joseph's parish school in 1950. She met Sean Donnelly at a parish dance when she was nineteen; they married at St. Joseph's on a snowy Saturday in February of 1953 and were married for fifty-eight years until his death in 2011.
In 1961, Marie and Sean bought the small bakery on the corner of Highland and Pearl from the Stipanovich family. Donnelly's — the name still painted on the side of the building, though the building is now a coffee shop — served the parish from 1961 until 2008, when Marie retired at the age of seventy-five. She rolled the babka dough by hand every Tuesday morning at four AM for forty-seven years. The recipe came from her mother, who had brought it from County Mayo in a small notebook in 1922; Marie made one change to it, in 1973, increasing the cardamom by a single quarter-teaspoon. She never wrote it down. She believed cookbooks were for people without grandmothers.
She was a daily communicant at St. Joseph's for seventy-two years. She served on the parish council for fifteen years, sang in the women's choir from 1955 until her voice went in 2019, and founded the parish's Outreach Fund in 1979 — which has provided emergency support to nearly two thousand New Castle families over the last forty-seven years. She baked the bread for every parish supper, every funeral reception, every Easter Vigil. Generations of children remember her by the smell of butter and yeast that arrived with her, wherever she went.
Marie was a strong woman who did not waste words and a tender woman who did not waste affection. She had a way of looking at a grieving person, putting a warm loaf into their hands, and saying nothing at all — and the silence was, somehow, exactly what was needed.
She is survived by five children, twelve grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, three sisters, and a parish she helped raise.
Survivors
Marie is survived by her five children: Patrick Donnelly (Eileen) of New Castle; Margaret Donnelly-Stipanovich (David) of Pittsburgh; Brendan Donnelly (Sarah) of New Castle; Kathleen Donnelly of New York City; and Sean Donnelly Jr. (Rachel) of Erie. She is also survived by twelve grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, and by her three remaining sisters: Bridget Cavanaugh-Ryan of Cleveland, Eileen Cavanaugh-Murphy of Pittsburgh, and Theresa Cavanaugh of New Castle. She was preceded in death by her husband Sean, by her parents, and by her five brothers.
Service Information
A visitation will be held on Thursday, May 12, 2026, from 4:00 to 7:00 PM at the Hartwell & Sons Funeral Home. A funeral Mass will be celebrated on Friday, May 13, 2026, at 10:00 AM at St. Joseph's Catholic Church, 320 Highland Avenue, New Castle. Burial will follow at Calvary Cemetery.
Fr. Michael O'Connell will preside. The St. Joseph's women's choir will sing. Marie's twelve grandchildren will serve as gift-bearers; her five children will serve as pallbearers.
Directions to Calvary Cemetery: From downtown New Castle, take Highland Avenue south for 1.4 miles, then right on Cemetery Road. Calvary is the second entrance on the left.
Memorial Donations
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that memorial donations be directed to St. Joseph's Parish Outreach Fund (320 Highland Ave, New Castle, PA 16101), which Marie helped found in 1979; or to Lawrence County Hospice, who cared for her in her last weeks with extraordinary tenderness.