Her life will be celebrated at 4 p.m. Wednesday, June 11, 2025 at the Twomey, LeBlanc & Conte Funeral Home at 193 High St., Newburyport, MA 01950.
The world lost one of its most creative, loving, funny women when the Lord Jesus on May 27th called Mary Donahoe Lytle of New York City, Dallas, and Newburyport home to be with her family and friends. She was a gifted Montessori kindergarten and reading teacher at the River Valley Charter School and at the Hillview Charter Montessori School.
Born in New York City on November 25, 1958 to Bernice Ethel Frevert Donahoe of New York City and Kevin Michael Donahoe, also of New York City. She was blessed with three loving and devoted sisters, Teresa Spaulding of Newburyport, Deidre Mannix and Jennifer Truesdale of Nantucket. Together, they built a lifetime of memories, many of them as children during summers on Nantucket.
Mary graduated from the Convent of the Sacred Heart, known as 91st Street, the oldest all-girl school in the country, in 1976 and from the College of the Holy Cross in 1980. At Holy Cross, she majored in History and Art History.
At Sacred Heart, where she was senior class president, she and her father raised significant amounts of money for the school through events like the inaugural Father/Daughter Dinner. Her father, a board member, also recruited and raised scholarship funds for five of the school’s first African American girls to attend the prestigious school.
At Sacred Heart, she fell in love with photography, creating her own dark room for developing photos at school and in the family’s historic home in Tarrytown, NY. She was known at Sacred Heart as the unofficial, “official” school photographer. At Holy Cross, she was the varsity basketball team’s photographer. After graduating, she was employed with national magazines as a photographer.
As a senior at Holy Cross, she was asked to use her photographic skills to develop the college’s first historical photographic archives. Impressed with her work, Boston College hired her post graduation and pregnant with her first child to develop its historical photographic archives.
She was the mother of four children, whom she adored — Kevin, John, Kara and Sarah Nealon. She was blessed with five grandchildren, the love of her life — Ava Marie, Lila Rose Nealon, Rhea May, John Nealon IV and Maverick Nealon.
Before becoming an exceptional teacher, where she discovered a passion for teaching students to read, she and two of her sisters were in-demand decorative painters, turning the walls of houses throughout the country into palaces. They learned their art from the late Leonard Pardon, a British master of faux painting.
In addition to her children and grandchildren, she is survived by two brothers-in-law, David Spaulding of Newburyport and Lawrence Mannix of Nantucket and Wilton, CT. She is also survived by grandchildren, Harry, Samuel and Lily Spaulding; Madeleine, Ella and Lawrence Mannix, Jr.; Juliet, Bruce III and Anneliese Truesdale.
Mary was married for 25 years to Stewart Lytle of Newburyport. They met and married in Dallas, where Mary volunteered raising money for charities like Kidney, Texas and the Cattle Baron’s Ball, one of the nation’s largest fundraisers for the American Cancer Society. She chaired the star-studded event during the year that George Strait performed and Larry Hagman (JR Ewing) made an appearance. She organized the Junior Cattle Baron’s Ball at Texas Stadium.
She and her sisters renovated a church near downtown Dallas for her home. She was pleased to offer the renovated church sanctuary to an African American congregation that was without a place to worship. The members turned her living room every Sunday into the church sanctuary. She, her husband, Stewart, and her children loved being members of the church.
In 2006, when Mary tired of the Texas summer heat, they purchased a home in Newburyport, near the homes of two of her sisters.
Mary was an exceptional cook and enjoyed hosting dinner parties in her homes. She traveled extensively, including her honeymoon with Stewart to Paris, France and Italy. Her favorite place, where she went often, was Florence, Italy.
Her life will be celebrated at 4 p.m. Wednesday, June 11, 2025 at the Twomey, LeBlanc & Conte Funeral Home at 193 High St., Newburyport, MA 01950.
For directions or to offer online condolences, visit www.tlcfuneralhome.com
