Rose Marie Anthony

Rose Marie Anthony (aged 92) passed away on October 3rd, 2021, surrounded by her three children. She was born in Chicago, Illinois on July 17, 1929, and was lovingly adopted at birth through Catholic Charities by Edmund John Mulvaney and Claire Grow Mulvaney. Rose Marie Eileen Mulvaney grew up in the South Side of Chicago as an only child, but had a large, close, extended Irish family and spent many enjoyable summers on her paternal grandparents’ farm in Dodge County, Wisconsin. She was a loyal and vocal Chicago Bears and Chicago White Sox sports fan from an early age. Rose Marie graduated from St. Thomas the Apostle High School in Hyde Park, and she earned both her Bachelor of Arts and Masters degrees from Loyola University Chicago before beginning a teaching career in history. She married John O’Connor in 1951 and then tragically lost him in a boating accident on Lake Michigan in 1954. After mourning that loss, she moved to Washington D.C., where she restarted her teaching career, moved in with lifelong friends, and met and married David Vincent Anthony in 1958, a recent Georgetown University Law School graduate who worked for the United States Department of Justice at the time.

Together with David, Rose Marie proudly and lovingly raised three children, Joseph, Katie, and Paul, in Alexandria, Virginia, and became an active and involved mother and volunteer. For years, she happily shuttled her children from predawn swimming practices to all day tennis marathons all over the DC area and beyond. While often too nervous to watch the critical moments without closing her eyes, she never missed an opportunity to support her family and vocally cheer at sporting events, performances, recitals, and school events. She was a generous and enthusiastic volunteer at her children's various schools and local community organizations, but she was most proud of her decades of volunteer work with HOPE of Northern Virginia, helping expectant mothers get the necessary physical, medical, and mental health resources to support both mother and child.

In her later years, Rose Marie’s greatest joy came from being an unconditionally loving grandmother to her five grandchildren, all of whom lived nearby and adored their “ReRe”. In so many wonderful ways, her grandchildren energized her and gave her hope and faith in the future, especially after she lost her beloved husband, David, in 2013. She moved soon thereafter to The Goodwin House Alexandria, where she became reacquainted with many old friends and made new ones. Rose Marie was well-known and loved for her generous heart, friendly and welcoming nature, wry humor, and fierce loyalty and commitment to the people (and sports teams) she loved so dearly.

Rose Marie lived a long, full life, and she will be deeply missed by many family and friends. She was preceded in death by her devoted husband of nearly 56 years, David Vincent Anthony, and she is survived by her three children, Joseph David Anthony of Alexandria, Virginia, Catherine (Katie) Anthony Miller of Arlington, Virginia, and Paul Vincent Anthony of Jackson
Hole, Wyoming, as well as her sister-in-law, Maureen Anthony of Erie, Pennsylvania, daughter-in law Jane Cashman Anthony, son-in-law Christopher Green Miller, and her beloved five grandchildren, Caroline Sawyer Miller, Mary Margarent Anthony, Theresa Rose Anthony, Claire Julia Miller, and Joseph David Anthony, Jr.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held on

Friday, October 22nd at 10:00 am at

The Basilica of St. Mary

310 South Royal Street

Alexandria, Virginia 22314

With burial immediately following at St. Mary’s Catholic Cemetery at 1000 S. Royal Street, Alexandria, Virginia. 

A Reception celebrating Rose Marie’s life will be held

afterwards at  

Hummingbird Restaurant 

220 South Union Street

Alexandria, Virginia 22314

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Rose Marie’s memory to The Little Sisters of the Poor in Washington D.C. 

https://littlesistersofthepoor.org/our-life/mission/ 

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