Leonore Marie Moritz O’Malley

Sept. 7, 1931 – Feb. 9, 2019

JACKSON — A memory service for Leonore Marie Moritz O’Malley, 87, who died peacefully Saturday, Feb. 9, 2019, at Hospice Ministries in Ridgeland, will be 1 p.m. Monday at St. Richard Catholic Church.

Visitation will be from noon until service time Monday at the church, followed by a memorial Mass.

Mrs. O’Malley was born Sept. 7, 1931, in Natchez, the daughter of Arthur Leon Moritz and Leonore Koerber Moritz.

While in Natchez, Leonore Marie was a Girl Scout leader and “the travel lady” at a number of nursing homes. At St. Mary Basilica, she was a Lector, taught Catechism and vacation Bible school. She also taught adult literacy at her home, volunteered at Pleasant Acre and the youth talk-line for troubled teenagers as a member of the Junior Auxiliary and worked with junior gardeners as a member of the Pilgrimage Garden Club. Her greatest passion, however, was traveling. Whether it was drinking vodka in Russia, visiting the Pope and Cardinals in Vatican City or searching for a glimpse of a white Bengal tiger in the jungles of Nepal, she loved adventure and meeting people. She never met a stranger. She was a citizen diplomat.

After moving to Jackson, she was a public radio reader for the visually impaired and a volunteer at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School. In 2017, she self-published an autobiography entitled, “It’ll Do,” which, through short stories and vignettes, detailed the experiences of an ordinary woman who lived an extraordinary life. Anyone who met her would certainly remember her quick wit and sense of humor. If you ever met her, you were left with a funny story and feeling better about yourself. Laughter was her medicine and faith was her strength. We will all miss her but never forget her.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Paul O’Malley; and two children, Paula Cameron and Arthur O’Malley.

Survivors include one daughter, Denise Fields and husband, Mike; one son, Kevin O’Malley; one granddaughter, Anna Johnson and husband, Barrett; five grandsons, Carl O’Malley and wife, Seretha, Chris Cameron and wife, Rachel, Justin Cameron, Charles Fields and wife, Shannon, and Richard Fields; four great-granddaughters; and 13 great-grandsons.

The family requests in lieu of flowers, donations be made to Hospice Ministries in Ridgeland.