Kathleen M. Donnelly

Kathleen M. Donnelly,58, was born and raised in Lexington, where she developed her love of history and New England. Despite her Massachusetts roots, she moved to London where she graduated from college and worked as a teacher of English as a Second Language for many years.

Her teaching career and curiosity about other cultures took her to Japan, where she taught and spent vacations exploring Asia. Her particular favorite was India, where she built and enjoyed a vacation house in the southern state of Kerala.

Kathleen returned to Boston and continued teaching English as a Second Language at many schools in the area. She touched the lives of her many international students with her dedication.

Her family and friends appreciated her dry wit, her green thumb, her skill in the kitchen and her appreciation for the finer things in life. Wherever she is today, we are sure she is packing for a new place to travel to and explore.

She is survived by her mother Shirley of Lexington, her brother, Michael and his wife Rosie, her nephew Joseph, wife Therese, grand niece Angelia and grand nephew Jaxton, all of Los Angeles. She was the daughter of the late Edward F. Donnelly

She will be missed by her aunt Ella Bayliss of Lexington and her cousins Wendy Bayliss and family of Brattleboro, VT, Roberta Hill and family of Southlake, TX, Stephanie Bayliss and family of Brimfield, MA and Martha Whyte and family of Medway, MA.

Close friends from her childhood in Lexington and her years of teaching in Boston also mourn her passing.

A memorial mass will be held on Saturday, March 19, at 2 pm at the Bethlehem Chapel on the Brandeis campus in Waltham. Memorial gifts may be made in Kathleen’s name to Sacred Threads Center, 37 Crafts Street, Newton, MA 02458.

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