Kuenning, Mary T.

Mary Therese Kuenning of Petersburg died in her home on Thursday, March 15, 2007. She was 88 years old. She came into this world 18 June, 1918, in ‘Little Italy’, Manhattan, daughter of Sicilian immigrants, Domenico Scalia and Maria Chisari. Mary had two sisters, Anna and Helen, and a brother who died at 14. After her father died, boldly Mary hopped on a train to Washington DC, where there was work in wartime, so she could support her mother and younger sister. In Washington, as a secretary in the War Department, she met LTC Howard Kuenning, an army officer already in his 30s, a confirmed bachelor. A seven-year courtship followed. As soon as they married, Howard left for Japan to serve on MacArthur’s staff. A year later, Mary hopped a transport and caught up with him. She fell in love with the country while Howard became embroiled in the Korean War. Their first son, Rick (Howard Frederick II), was born there in Tokyo. The Korean War over, they returned to San Francisco, for four years at the Presidio, where two sons were born, Douglas and Robert. By then, Howard was a Colonel and from there his military career took them to Germany where they lived for three years. Mary arrived at Fort Lee in 1959, with husband, three sons, and two elderly mothers. There she was a core member of the Fort Lee Officer’s Wives Club, the American Red Cross, the Army Community Center, and hosted innumerable parties including the definitive Fort Lee community New Year’s Party. Howard retired in 1966 and the family moved just two miles to a home in Petersburg, where they remained. Rick went off to the US Military Academy at West Point, graduating with distinction, and a sterling thirty-year Army career. Douglas proceeded through a series of universities into a career as a university lecturer. Robert had an Army career, before finding his true calling as a Church of Christ minister. Mary and Howard remained highly active in Petersburg activities, including Petersburg Symphony Society, The Petersburg Symphony Womens’ Committee (the Designer House), Army Community Service, the Petersburg Art League, the Civitan, The Greet and Meet Organization, Confederated Women, MOAA, The Retired Officers’ Association of Fort Lee, the Retired Officers Wives Club, the Petersburg Garden Club, the Sojourners, the Fort Lee Memorial Society, and received the Catherine Green Award by US Army Association of the Quartermasters. She is survived by her younger sister, Helen Infurna, who lives in San Diego, with her husband Michael; by her three sons--Rick, who lives in Germany with his wife, Jan; Douglas, who lives in Sicily and San Francisco with his wife, Patti Trimble and Robert, who lives in Wasilla, Alaska, with his wife Carol; and by her grandchildren Andrea an her husband, James Smith, Brady, Mary Susan, Asa, Isaac, and Adam. There will be a visitation on Monday night from 6 to 8 pm, at J. T. Morriss & Son Funeral Home. Funeral services will be conducted on Tuesday, March 20, at 1:00 pm at the Memorial Chapel on Fort Lee (Sisisky Blvd and C Ave). This will be followed by a procession and interment at Southlawn Memorial Park, (Birdsong Rd., off of South Crater Road). The Memorial Service will continue at 4 pm at the Lee Club (former Officer’s Club) of Fort Lee with a reception and celebration of her life. The family warmly invites all friends and associates to come and share their memories of this remarkable and beloved woman. The family is being served by the Petersburg Chapel of the J. T. Morriss & Son Funeral Home. Condolences may be registered at www.jtmorriss.com