It is with great sorrow that the family of Mary Elizabeth Lander McDermott is announcing her passing from our lives on September 20, 2022, after a short stay in Hospice Care in Macon, Georgia. Our mother was born April 28, 1927, in Quincy, Massachusetts, to Charles Bernard Lander and Christy Ethel MacLean. She graduated from the Woodard School in 1944 and attended Boston College for her studies in accounting.

Mary was the devoted wife of 49 years of Walter F. McDermott, who predeceased her in 1996. Mary raised four children with her husband while working part-time as a bookkeeper at the McDermott Paint & Wallpaper store and then worked full-time at the Greenwich Health Department until her retirement in 1986.

Mary was an avid traveler of the United States and Europe. Growing up, her summers were found on Lake Winnipesaukee canoeing and kayaking as well as water-skiing and horseback riding. She was also an avid skier and could always be found on the mountain at Mount Snow and Haystack in Vermont or as well as Mount Zermatt in Switzerland. When she retired she spent her summers tending to her gardens, playing golf at the Griff Harris Golf Club, boating on Long Island Sound, or going on a one-suitcase restriction train trip across Europe and an RV trip that took her to all of the National Parks in the United States. Her grandchildren all received a post card from all the parks she visited and all our refrigerators were covered with the mementos. During the winters, she spent her time in the Dominican Republic helping the community raise funds to build a school for all the workers in her community and enjoying the bright sunny beaches where “there wasn’t a gray day.”

Mary is survived by daughter Debra Kathryn McDermott Adkins (Richard) of Macon, Ga., and their sons, Christopher (Alabama) and Brian (Colorado); daughter Susan McDermott Conrod (Richard) of Connecticut and children Barbera Engelke and Brian (Connecticut), Margaret Rafter (California), and John R. Rafter, lll Esq (California); daughter Elizabeth Jean McDermott (Connecticut); and son Walter F. McDermott lll (Suzanne) and sons Walter IV (Colorado) and Matthew (Virginia); as well as six great-grandchildren.

Services will be private and in lieu of flowers, please honor our mother with a donation to the Alzheimer’s Association at alz.org/act.