It is with grieving hearts that we announce the passing of Ann Lee Deignan (née Gallagher) of Concord, formerly of Sanibel Island, Florida, who passed away on June 11, 2024, unexpectedly and peacefully.
Ann wore Talbot’s petites, but her impact was outsized as a wife, mother, grandmother, and neighbor.
Born in 1934 in Cambridge, she inherited Catholic faith and witty one-liners from her parents, May and Frank Gallagher. The youngest of five, she balanced pleasure and practicality from the start, fondly taking the streetcar into Boston to shop at Bonwit Teller, yet folding her lunch foil for another use. She graduated from Regis College alongside lifelong friends in the Class of ’55. She became a grammar school teacher, a job she held briefly but became, in identity, permanently: May all her future generations heed the difference between “less” and “fewer.”
Fixed up by their mothers over a bridge game, Ann married Edward F.S. Deignan in 1959. They raised four children in love: Edward F.S. Deignan Jr., Marianne Deignan (Gray Ellrodt), William Deignan (Molly Ruffle), and Eileen Deignan (Victor Hsu).
In 1967, Ann and her family moved from Belmont to Concord. She was a long-time volunteer for the Concord Milldames and Emerson Hospital Auxiliary and a member of St. Bernard’s Church. She had many friends, including the close-knit couples in the “Bridge Group,” that traveled and socialized together often.
Later, Ann and Ted spent the winters on Sanibel Island, Florida, which Ann continued even after Ted’s passing in 1999, bringing neighborly effervescence along. An avid tennis and bridge player with dear friends, she cultivated a physical and social strength that served her into her 90th year.
Ann’s life was imbued with joy by her nine grandchildren, Cam, Nate, Jack, Grace, Connor, Trish, Clare, Evan, and Andrew. She dispensed wisdom while corralling her “little tykes” to polish silverware, peel peaches, iron clothes, and skip down the sidewalk, teaching disguised as play. To them, and to all ages and relations, she was lovingly known by the moniker inherited from her mother, “Gamma.”
Ann loved her gardens in Concord and in Florida, puttering between beds, blending in a floral robe.
A coffee cup in one hand, her other hand was free to prune. Other times, she simply stood, almost motionless, and took it all in.
Family and friends will gather for visiting hours on Thursday, June 20, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Dee Funeral Home, 27 Bedford Street. Ann’s funeral will be held on Friday, June 21, at 9 a.m. from the Dee Funeral Home, followed by a Funeral Mass at 10 a.m. in St. Bernard’s Church at Holy Family Parish, 12 Monument Square. Burial will follow at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge. We welcome all.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to The Emerson Hospital Foundation, an organization close to Ann’s heart, 133 ORNAC, Concord, MA 01742, or online at Emerson Hospital. Alternatively, in support of Ted Jr. and his daughter Clare, please consider the Springbrook Foundation.
Rest in peace, Gamma. Your enlivening, graceful presence will live on in the hearts you nurtured.
Arrangements are entrusted to Dee Funeral Home & Cremation Service of Concord. For Ann’s online guestbook, please visit www.DeeFuneralHome.com.
