Mary J. Noeth

AYER: Mary J. (Kiwaczynski) Noeth, 101, of Ayer, passed away peacefully on June 4, 2024 at the Lifecare Center in Littleton.
She was predeceased by her husband William H Noeth Jr in 2019 as well as by her sisters Stacia in 1990 and Gladys in 2019.
Mrs. Noeth is survived by her three children William Noeth III and his wife Anne of Acton, Michael Noeth and his wife Paula of Ayer, and Mary Slattery and her husband Keith of Groton, along with seven grandchildren, Peter and his wife Melissa, Alycia, Michael, Christopher, Catharine, Victoria and Caroline, great grandchildren Lilly, Jack and Ben. She also leaves a number of nieces and nephews.
Mary was born in the North End of Boston on July 30, 1922 to Walter and Victoria (Prontkelewicz) Kiwaczynski and spent her early life residing in the West End of Boston with her parents and two older sisters. She attended St Joseph's Elementary School and graduated from Boston Girls High School in 1939.
Mary worked in a number of clerical and sales positions after high school and then began a ten year career at the Army and Air Force Exchange Service in 1943, located at the former South Boston Army Base; she met her future husband who was stationed there. They married in Boston in 1953 at St Mary's of Ostrabrama Polish Catholic Church and she spent the next thirteen years as a military wife, accompanying her husband to Ft McClellan, Alabama as well as Ft Devens in Ayer and Fort Richardson and Fort Greeley in Alaska. Mary moved from Fort Devens to Ayer with her husband and three children when her husband retired from the army in 1966.
While raising her children, she began a second career that she truly loved, working in the Ayer school system at the Page -Hilltop School first as a lunch and recess aide and then for over twenty additional years as an aide in the newly opened Page Hilltop library, retiring in 2003. Mary was very involved in the activities of St Mary's Church, a consistent participant in the annual "Minstrel Show" in the 1970s and 1980s and a tireless volunteer at the annual Lawn Party.
Mary loved her family and always enthusiastically welcomed any type of family get together. She loved to share in family members' milestones and accomplishments. She would regale her family with her stories of the Great Depression, World War 2, and the demolition of her much beloved West End of Boston. A favorite pastime in her early years was going to the movies and her knowledge of cinema trivia from the 1930s and 1940s was incomparable. For well over five decades, she would schedule a Saturday afternoon hair appointment in town and could keep up with the local current Ayer news while she was having her hair done.
Mary lived on her own in the family home until age 101½ and received the Boston Post Cane in 2022, which recognized her as the oldest living resident of the town of Ayer, she spent her last weeks in the Life Care Center of Nashoba Valley in Littleton and her family is very grateful for the loving care that she received there. The family is also grateful to her friends and caregivers who provided visits and care to Mary during her last years of life.
A funeral mass will be celebrated for Mary at 11AM Wednesday, June 12, 2024, at St Anthony's Church, 14 Phoenix Street, Shirley.
There are no calling hours.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations in her name be made to the VNA Care Network Home Health and Hospice (Vnacare.org) or to the Page Hilltop Elementary School Library, 115 Washington St. Ayer.
The Anderson Funeral Home, 25 Fitchburg Road, Ayer is assisting the family with the arrangements. www.andersonfuneral.com