On Sept. 2, 2021, Mrs. Mary Ann Connelly (nee Mudd), an artist who established the Red Queen Gallery in Onancock, died at Good Samaritan Hospital in Baltimore, Md., at the age of 70.
Mary Ann, the oldest of seven children, grew up in Towson, Md., and was the daughter of John Edward Mudd and his wife, Alice Maureen O’Toole Mudd. Mrs. Connelly was a descendant of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, the Charles County, Md., physician who treated John Wilkes Booth after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Dr. Mudd was later imprisoned at Dry Tortugas, Fla., until being pardoned in 1869 by President Andrew Johnson.
In 1970 while working as an administrative assistant at Alex. Brown & Sons in Towson, she met J. Michael Connelly Jr., who later became a partner at Alex. Brown & Sons. The couple fell in love and married in 1971. They had planned to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary Sept. 4, 2021, but she passed away two days prior. They had seven children, five boys and two girls.
In 1997, the Connelly Family moved to the former home of poet Ogden Nash in the Guilford neighborhood of Baltimore. In 2002, Mrs. Connelly opened the home to U.S. Post Office officials and the public for the unveiling of the Ogden Nash 37-cent stamp that honored the celebrated poet and Broadway lyricist.
While Mary Ann grew up and lived with her husband and children in Baltimore, the family has owned a second home, Green Top Farm, in Onancock since 1992. On the property, she enjoyed spending time in a converted barn which she used as an artists studio and observing the wildlife on Chesconessex Creek. In addition to family and friends, many Paint Onancock artists and North Street Playhouse actors were welcomed guests at the house.
They also had a home on the Gulf of Mexico in Longboat Key, Fla., where she enjoyed spending time with friends and family. In recent years, while health challenges made her wheelchair bound, a highlight was being able to enjoy the pool at their home. While in Baltimore in recent years, Mary Ann and her husband resided in Locust Point and enjoyed watching ships and boats come in and out of the harbor, fireworks over the city, and observing ospreys from their condo atop a converted grain silo.
Mary Ann was a talented artist who worked in acrylics, photography, and in her later years, digital art. Each day she shared one of her works via email and called them Queenie’s Queenies, after choosing the name “Queenie” for her grandchildren to call her.
She founded the Red Queen Gallery on Market Street in Onancock in 2007 with the mission “to give the best artists a place to display their work and a place for our patrons to discover and enjoy that work.” In 2009, she established Paint Onancock, a plein-air painting and photography event.
Mary Ann enjoyed traveling, preferring to travel by car, train, and steamship when possible. She and her husband enjoyed several trans-Atlantic voyages aboard Cunard Lines Queen Mary II. After taking her first trip to Ireland in the early 1980s, she became entranced by Irish art, culture, and fell under the spell of Irish music.
In addition to enjoying her work as an artist, Mary Ann studied grant writing at Goucher College and later volunteered as a grant writer for The Catholic High School of Baltimore and Towson Catholic that resulted in successfully securing funds for the schools. In addition to traveling and spending time with friends and family, in her free time, she enjoyed knitting and loved making scarves, hats, and blankets for friends and family and playing Words with Friends online, a Scrabble-like game, at which she was a whiz and a formidable opponent. It wasn’t unusual for her to have more than 20 games going at a time.
Mary Ann was the beloved wife of J. Michael Connelly Jr.; devoted mother of Joe Connelly and his wife, Ladina, Kelly Connelly, Tim Connelly and his wife, Negah, Pat Connelly, Dan Connelly, Kevin Connelly, and Meggie Connelly; cherished grandmother of Mikes, Ashur, Samaya, Amina, and Devin Connelly; loving sister of Tricia Mudd-Bitting and her husband, Rob, Amy Ciarlo and her husband, Mike, and Dan Mudd and his wife, Ginny; and dear sister-in-law of Annina Lang and Anne Mudd. She is also survived by many other loving family and friends.
Mary Ann was predeceased in life by her parents, John and Maureen Mudd; her sister, Susan Mudd; and by two of her brothers, John Mudd and Tom Mudd.
A funeral mass was held at the Immaculate Conception Church in Baltimore Sept. 8, 2021.
