Mary Ann Whitehead

Mary Ann Whitehead was born in Newark, New Jersey on August 12, 1938 to Irma Madden Woody and T. Colson Woody. She died peacefully on November 3, 2023 in her home in Sag Harbor, New York, the place she loved best.
Mary Ann was a full-time resident of Sag Harbor for 34 years after spending summers there since 1945. She also lived in New York City from 1961 to 1989.
Mary Ann attended and graduated from Orange Public Schools in Orange, New Jersey where she lived until her marriage to Arch S. Whitehead of New York.
She graduated from Smith College and received her Master's Degree from New York University. She taught in the New York City public schools until she joined her husband's company, Arch S. Whitehead Associates, Inc., an executive search firm where she worked until her retirement. After retirement Mary Ann went to work part time in her family's funeral business, Woody Home For Services in Orange, New Jersey.
Mary Ann was a member of Union Baptist Church in Orange, New Jersey, and upon moving to New York joined the Abyssinian Baptist Church, where she sang in the Sanctuary Choir. Over the years, she was officer of the Smith College Club of New York, a member of the Choral Society of the Hamptons, the Metropolitan Chapter of Jack and Jill, the Metropolitan Chapter of the Links, Inc., a Trustee of the John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor and the Northeasterners, Inc, social club. She was active as a Smith College alumna, serving several terms as Class Secretary.
Friends and neighbors in the Azurest, Sag Harbor Hills, and Ninevah communities recognize her as one of the original "Beach Potatoes" – there is no higher honor. She was also famous for her love of The New York Times crossword puzzle, All My Children, and swimming in Gardiner's Bay. Receiving one of her big smiles made you happy all day.
Her husband Arch and her son Clarke preceded her in death. She leaves her children, Ann Moore, Lynn Whitehead, and Colson Whitehead, and her sisters Ida Woody Wells and Irma Francis. She also leaves her grandchildren Alex, Chris, Richard, Fig, and Beckett, her sons-in-law Vincent and Jay, her daughter-in-law Julie, and other relatives