Mary Ann (Brennan) Kohli

Mary Ann Kohli died on her 92nd birthday in Seattle where she had lived since 2010.  She was born Mary Ann Brennan in Oceanside, NY, on August 13, 1930, the third of the eight children of James and Rose (nee Tully) Brennan. She grew up in Baldwin and played basketball for St. Agnes High School in Rockville Centre, NY. She graduated in 1948 and attended Fordham University in New York, NY, for a short time. She went on a blind date with Joseph W. Kohli of nearby Freeport, NY, during the summer of 1954, married him on January 15, 1955, and then moved to Ft. Lauderdale, FL. She returned to Long Island in 1960, with her family, then moving to southeast Wisconsin in 1967.

Mary Kohli was ever curious and an avid reader. Most notably, she was a life-long learner.  She shared her love of learning with her nine children and attended high school science classes with her son Joe’s classmates, at Elkhorn High School, and then attended the University of Wisconsin Whitewater as a prerequisite to returning to college to pursue a degree in nursing. After getting her children off to school in Elkhorn, WI, Mary enrolled at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, became a registered nurse in 1979, and worked at Lakeland Hospital as well as the hospice program through the Visiting Nurses Association. After retiring from nursing, she returned to UWM to study archaeology, and even participated in a late-Minoan dig in the Siteia Mountains of Crete at the age of sixty-nine, where her team discovered fragments of a terra cotta goddess.

Mary made friends wherever she went, and made new connections with Irish relatives, particularly her Brennan cousins.  Mary thoroughly enjoyed good food, meeting new people, and socializing. She loved traveling, genealogy, and art. She also enjoyed flowers, birds, sea turtles, and all the other beauties of the earth.

Mary was a feminist and was very active in local politics, particularly the Democratic Party of Walworth County, WI, as well as social justice movements. For the past twelve years, she was a member of St. Catherine Parish in Seattle, where she particularly enjoyed making new friends and cheering on the choir. Previously, she attended St. Patrick Parish in Elkhorn for thirty-eight years.

She is preceded in death by her parents, husband (Joe Kohli), siblings (Ellen Rahilly, James Brennan of the Congregation of Christian Brothers, Martin Brennan, Joseph Brennan, Jerry Brennan, and Rosemarie Brennan of the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary). She is survived by her sister, Ann Swartz, her children, Martin (Jacqueline) Kohli, Joseph Kohli, Patrick (Renate) Kohli, Jim (Linda) Kohli, Mary (Mark) Griffin, Sharon Kohli, Deirdre (Richie) Poyer, Gene (Liz) Kohli, and David (Karla) Kohli, as well as twelve grandchildren, five great grandchildren, and one great-great granddaughter.

A Mass of Christian Burial will take place on Saturday, September 17, 2022, at 10:00 AM at St. Patrick's Catholic Church, 107 W. Walworth St., Elkhorn, WI. Visitation will be held at the Church before Mass starting at 9:00 AM. Memorials may be made to Intercommunity Peace & Justice Center: https://ipjc.org/support-ipjc/ or the Norse Home.  On-line guestbook is at www.haaselockwoodfhs.com.