Growing up in Riverside and then Delanco, she attended St. Casimir’s Elementary School and Riverside High School. She received her bachelor’s degree from Glassboro State College (now Rowan University) in Glassboro, and her master’s in Theology from St. Charles Seminary in Philadelphia.
During her time at Holy Cross, she served as a campus minister; as the head of Lancers for Life; and as the chair of the Religion Department. Rosemary also led student groups on trips abroad, most memorably to Italy and the Vatican. A lover of music, she devoted many years to the music ministry at Holy Cross, where she played her guitar and led the choir for Masses. As Rosemary celebrated her final and 25th year of teaching, the student body dedicated the 2009-2010 school yearbook to her, an honor that touched her greatly.
Rosemary was the most wonderful kind of friend. She was devoted, smart, trustworthy, funny, and easy to talk to. She leaves behind a great wealth of friends, her family, students, and coworkers included, that will miss her warmth and kindness tremendously. We are so grateful to her. Rosemary was preceded in death by her parents, Edward and Anna O’Connor; and her sister, Carole Gavin of Edgewater Park. Rosemary was the much loved sister of Edward O’Connor of Medford, Ore.; devoted sister-in-law to James Gavin of Edgewater Park; beloved aunt to Claudine Kratz and her husband, Daryn, of Tahoe City, Calif., Jocelyne Yoo and her husband, Peter, of Philadelphia, and Brigitte Gavin of Durham, N.C.; and dear great-aunt to Annie, Kelly, and Gavin Kratz, and Carolina Yoo.
Liturgy of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 16, at St. Casimir’s Roman Catholic Church, 502 New Jersey Ave., Riverside. Interment will follow at Lakeview Memorial Park, Cinnaminson. The family will receive their friends from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 15, and from 10 to 10:45 a.m. Thursday, at the church.
Come share a memory of Rosemary at the funeral home Web site below. Sweeney Funeral Home,
