Mary Kathryn Hart passed into the arms of our Heavenly Father while surrounded by her devoted family on June 23, 2024, in Austin, Texas at age 83.

“Mary K” was born in Guilford, Connecticut on July 5, 1940, the first child of John and Mary (Lytle) Hart. She grew up and spent most of her life as a resident of North Branford. The Hart Family Homestead on Totoket Road became a fixture of the neighborhood and small town, which Mary K. played a huge part in keeping up.

A proud graduate of Sacred Heart Academy in Hamden, she first pursued a vocation to religious life with the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus as an educator in the Melrose Park district of Chicago, IL. After discerning out of the convent, she studied bookkeeping, which led her to various office jobs in New Haven County: Yale University as a research assistant, New Haven Tubular Rivet Co. as bookkeeper, Ferecelli Olds as office manager, and Lee Partyka Chevrolet as bookkeeper.

Mary also ran her own small business, Hart Accounting Service, helping people with their taxes and bookkeeping, and volunteered her bookkeeping services for the Democratic Town Committee.

She spent the last 16 years of her professional life as parish secretary at Saint Augustine’s Catholic Church in North Branford. She was a faithful and lifelong parishioner. Parish Trustee, Altar Guild, Choir, Garden Maintenance, and Catechism Teacher, which was her greatest love, were but a fraction of how Mary K enjoyed serving her faith community.

She will be remembered most fondly for being the matriarch of the Hart family for 30 years, keeping a lovely home and garden, her artwork, and remaining a constant source of support and neighborly help for anyone who knew her. Never was there a more loyal friend than Mary K.; she freely shared the immense wisdom of an 8-decade-long life with those who needed it.

Mary is survived by her siblings John Louis Hart (Claire), Bernadette Lysaght, and Miriam Hart, and nieces and nephews who she treated like they were her own kids: John Robert Hart (Theresa), Sherri Hart (Ruth), Daniel Nixon, and John James Lysaght (Laura). She is preceded in death by her parents, John and Mary Louise Hart, and siblings, Frances Carlson (Roger) and Barbara Nixon (John).

A Funeral Mass will be held for Texas family and friends on Wednesday, July 24, 2024 at 10 AM on Wednesday, July 24, 2024 at St. William Catholic Church, Round Rock, Texas.

A Funeral Mass will be held at 11 AM on Friday, July 26, 2024 at St. Augustine Church, North Branford, CT with interment immediately following at All Saints Cemetery, North Haven, CT.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to support a scholarship in her name at https://everloved.com/life-of…

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