A funeral mass was celebrated Nov. 9 at St. Aloysius Chuirch for Margaret Etta Flaherty McFarland. She died Nov. 5 at the inpatient hospice unit of the Washington Home and Community Hospice, surrounded by her family. Margy was born in her family’s home on Belmont Avenue in Jersey City, the only sister of five brothers.
She graduated from the Academy of St. Aloysius and earned a full academic scholarship to Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in chemistry and worked as a Chemical Research Librarian for Texaco in New York City for four years. Margy married Henry B. McFarland, Jr. on Oct. 14, 1950 at St. Aloysius Church. In addition to practicing law and serving on the Hudson County District Court, Judge McFarland commanded an LST during World War II and served in the Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corp for 20 years, retiring as a Lieutenant Commander. He and Margy shared a love of history, reading, and theater and a passion for travel. Judge McFarland died in 2003.
Margy served as president of The Sodality of the Children of Mary of St. Teresa, of which her grandmother, Bridget Walsh Mylotte, was a founding member. In 2007, Margy and Virginia Brown Morley, her friend since college days, celebrated their 50th anniversary as Teresians together. Margy was also actively involved in her children’s schools. She served as president of the St. Peter’s Prep Mother’s Club. Harkening back to her early career, she became a volunteer at the Academy of St. Aloysius Library and continued her weekly service there for more than 25 years after her daughter graduated. She found literary soulmates and friends in the librarians, Sister Kathleen Koerner, the late Sister Agnes Nyhan, and the late Sister Thomas Marie Henry.
Her involvement in many Jersey City based organizations brought her a great deal of pleasure. She was an active member of The Odd Volumes and delighted in preparing papers on a wide range of topics ranging from Alma Mahler to Shintoism. The final paper she wrote and presented before leaving Jersey City was on the history of Yosemite National Park. Margy was also a member of the Jersey City Woman’s Club and the Abercrombie Guild of Christ Hospital. In the early 1950s, she served as vice-president of the Junior League of St. Francis Hospital.
She was a St. Aloysius parishioner for over 80 years and worked with her husband as a Eucharistic Minister. She was a member of the Liturgy Committee. She taught religious education at St Aloysius well into her 80s and found special joy in preparing children for Reconciliation and First Communion. Margy was also an enthusiastic participant in Cornerstone, a program which nurtures the spiritual growth of women in the Parish.
In 1996, Margy was named a Centennial Aloysian. After living on Fairview Avenue for more than 55 years, Margy moved to Washington, D.C. to be close to her son, daughter, and their families. As the widow of a retired Naval officer, Margy moved to Knollwood, a military retirement residence. As her health declined, she was cared for at Knollwood with gentleness and respect.
In addition to her husband, Margy was preceded in death by her parents, Edmund Joseph and Margaretta Mylotte Flaherty; her brothers: Edmund and his wife Althea and son James; Thomas and his wife Betty; Simon James and his wife Helen; John and his wife Mary; and Paul Flaherty; her infant grandson, James Francis Rothenberg; her father and mother-in-law, Henry and Florence MacMurren McFarland; her brothers-in-law, Rev. Francis X. SJ and Rev. James W. McFarland; and her sister-in-law Mildred Grace McFarland. To honor and celebrate her memory, she leaves her son Henry and his wife Mary Ann McFarland; her daughter Margaretta and her husband Steven Rothenberg; her grandchildren, Bridget, Matthew, Brendan, and Eileen McFarland and Benjamin and Maria Rothenberg; her sister-in- law, Beverly Lofstrom Flaherty; 17 nieces and nephews; and a joyful abundance of grand and great-grandnieces and nephews. Services arranged by the McLaughlin Funeral Home, Jersey City.