Mary Anne M. Leclercq

Mary Anne (McGrath) Leclercq was born in Allentown, PA to John and Marion (Fahy) McGrath and educated in local schools. She was graduated from Central Catholic High School in 1952. While at Temple University School of Dental Hygiene, from which she was graduated in 1954, she met her husband, Dr. Ernest Paul Leclercq, to whom she was married for 51 years until his death in 2006.

After her six children were established in school, she returned to her career as a Dental Hygienist.

Her pleasures in life were reading, travel, crossword puzzles, and games, particularly Mah Jongg and Bridge, where she achieved the rank of Life Master.

In 2001, she became a Minister of the Altar at St. Barnabas Church in Bayville, NJ where she did readings at daily and Sunday Mass, and also assisted with the Interfaith Hospitality Committee. She was passionate about her family, her faith and her Irish heritage. She was active in the Sonata Bay community, where she resided from 1992, serving on the Board of Trustees as well as the Judiciary, Pool, and Covenants and By Laws committees. For many years, she served as a willing volunteer at Community Medical Center, Toms River, because she truly believed one must give back something to the community.

Her parents as well as her sister, Catherine McGrath, and he son Ernest Paul, Jr., predeceased her. Her children, the joy of her life, Suzanne, wife of Thomas Zinsky; Mary Kathryn; Anne (wife of Ernest Jr. deceased); John; James and his wife Anna; and Lawrence and his wife Janis survive her. Grandchildren, of whom she was justifiably proud, are Rebecca, wife of James Maher; James; Stephanie; Ernest III; Margaret; Kristen; Lawrence Jr.; Jillian; and Joseph Leclercq. Also surviving is one great granddaughter, Kaitlyn Grace Maher.

“We stand today in silent grief as we face the will of an incomprehensible God. We understand that any God worth the name is necessarily incomprehensible. Yet as a loving parent, He understands the pain and bemusement of His children. He sorrows with us; He weeps with us even though we are too frozen by sadness to weep. Mary Anne, we know, is with God. She has left us but only temporarily, only for a little while. In the meantime, she will be with us in our memories, in our prayers, and in her watchfulness. In the words of the Liturgy, life is changed, not taken away. Mary Anne is young again. We will be young again; we will all laugh again. Until then, we will continue to live with the faith she taught us by word and example.”

Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Mastapeter Memorial Home, 270 Atlantic City Blvd., Bayville, NJ 08721. A visitation will be held on Tuesday, June 1, 2021 from 3-8pm at Mastapeter Memorial Home. Family and friends are invited to meet at the funeral home on Wednesday, June 2, 2021 at 9:30am before an 11am funeral mass at St. Barnabas Church, 33 Woodland Rd., Bayville, NJ 08721. Burial will take place on June 8, 2021 at 11am at the B.G.W.C.D. NJ Veteran's Cemetery. A short gathering will take place at the funeral home at 9:30am before leaving for the interment. Condolences can be sent to www.mastapetermemorialhome.com.  

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