August 15, 1905 – Monday, June 29, 2009

Service Information
St. Francis-Xavier Catholic Church
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
11:00 AM

Visitation Information

Mary Angela (Demgen) Gibney age 103, passed away on June 29, 2009, at the Lake Ridge Care Center in Buffalo, MN where she had resided for the past six years. She was born August 15, 1905 in Hibbing, MN, the eldest of seven children, to John and Julia (Fahey) Demgen. She graduated from Hibbing High School in 1923 before eventually moving to Minneapolis where she held a series of secretarial positions including several years at Glidden Paints.

On October 7, 1946, she married John Gibney in Minneapolis, where they lived until moving to Brooklyn Center in 1951. Mary was the secretary in the counseling office at Brooklyn Center High School until her retirement in 1975. Throughout their four-plus decades together, Mary and John traveled the US and Canada extensively, danced, skated and kept up a rigorous holiday schedule both entertaining and visiting family members.

In 1980, she and John moved to Sun City, AZ, where they stayed busy volunteering at church and at the local library. Following John’s death in 1990, Mary returned to Brooklyn Center to be closer to her family. She moved to Buffalo in 2001. She continued to walk two miles per day and volunteer for the Democratic Party until a series of injuries necessitated her move to Lake Ridge in 2003.

She was preceded in death by her parents and husband, her six brothers; James, Ralph, John, Francis, Lawrence and Robert, and her niece Lee Demgen Harris. She is survived by sisters in law, Emily Demgen of Superior, WI and Sally Demgen of Willmar, MN, and twelve nieces and nephews; Margaret (Peggy) Demgen of Scottsdale, AZ, James Demgen of East Gull Lake, MN, Joseph Demgen of Burlington, VT, Martin Demgen of Minneapolis, MN, James Demgen of Buffalo, MN, John Demgen of Reno, NV, Thomas Demgen of Vallejo, CA, Katharine Demgen of San Francisco, CA, Susan Demgen of Lehigh Acres, FL, Carey Demgen of Wellsville, NY, Julie Demgen of Newark, DE, and Sarah Garfield of Stockton, CA.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held Tuesday July 7th at 11:00 AM at the Church of St. Francis Xavier, 300 1st Ave NW, Buffalo. Visitation will be held Monday July 6th from 5:00 to 8:00 PM at the Peterson Chapel, 119 Central Ave, Buffalo, with a parish prayer service at 7:00 PM, and at the church one hour prior to Mass. Interment will occur at a later date in Arizona. Memorials preferred to the Church of St. Francis Xavier.