Mary Duffy

Waynesville, The sweet, loving soul of (Mary) Alice Duffy is at peace now. She passed on Tuesday night, October 19, 2010 after losing her brave two year battle with cancer. Until her last breath, her greatest joy was spending time with her family, most of whom still reside in Michigan. She dedicated her life to providing a loving home, where she also created and taught tole painting. These beautiful treasures are an enduring legacy that she leaves behind. She was born on October 3, 1924 in Stuart, Oklahoma where she left at eighteen to go to work in the war effort in Oklahoma City and New Jersey where she met her husband, Joseph (Mike) Wilson Duffy, a Northern Irish member of the British Navy to whom she was married for sixty-one years until his death in 2004. In 1950, they emigrated to Detroit, MI, where they raised their family. In 1980, they retired to Chesapeake, OH where they lived until 2004 when Alice moved to North Carolina. She is survived by her daughter, Donna Eileen Duffy and son-in-law, Kenneth Czarnomski of Waynesville, NC; her son, Michael Duffy and daughter-in-law, Julie Duffy, of Madison Hgts, MI; her former daughter-in-law whom she considered a second daughter, Patricia Duffy and two grandsons, Christopher Michael and Sean Ryan of Saline, MI; and her sister, Donna Adams, whom she lived with in Waynesville, NC. No memorial is planned at this time. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made in Alice's memory to Care Partners Hospice, John F. Keever Solace Center, P.O. Box 25338, Asheville, NC 28813. Wells Funeral Homes & Cremation Services of Waynesville is in charge of arrangements.