Ava

Tracy

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It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Ava Marie (Donovan) Tracy on December 15th, 2023.. Ava was born on March 30th, 1941 in Glendale NY.  Her big sister Claire was insistent on calling her new sister Tommie, modeled after a neighbor named Tommy McLaughlin who pulled his older sibling around in a wagon.

Tommie attended Sacred Heart grade school in Glendale Queens and Dominican Commercial high school in Jamaica Queens.  After graduating, she took a secretarial job in Manhattan.

In the 1960s, Tommie gave birth to four wonderful children Raymond Peter, William George, Ava Marie and Amy Claire. It immediately became her life's mission to make sure they knew that she loved them tremendously.

She was Aunt Tommie to Claire's four fabulous children Fred, Claire, Beth and Ronnie and spent many a summer on Long Beach in Sag Harbor with them along with her own four to make the Great 8.

She was further blessed with eight amazing grandchildren, Samantha, Nikole, Alexandra, Raymond, Luke, Louie, Victoria and Daniel. She was also blessed with many more grandchildren and even great-grandchildren by marriage.

She loved being Grandma, Grandma Blue and Gram and showered all of them with endless love and affection.

Ava married the love of her life, Bradley Vincent Tracy in 1982. Their love for each other has been enduring, strong, genuine, devoted and beautiful.

Ava and Bradley would sign letters and greeting cards to each other with the acronym AILYS (and I love you so). Bradley was one of the few people in her life that called her by her given name, Ava. ❤️

Ava and Brad were avid New York Ranger fans and even had season tickets for many years. One of her most cherished memories was attending the Rangers Stanley Cup game 7 win!!

Tommie loved celebrating holidays and sent beautiful, thoughtful greeting cards in abundance. Christmas was surely her favorite holiday. She loved the Christmas season and all that came with it. She was an Olympic level gift wrapper. she had all the skills.. the tight, straight corners, the big bows, the ribbon going this way and that as one continuous piece made curly and frilly at the ends by a crafty technique using one side of a scissor, and the wrap was finished off with a to/from tag with handwriting fit for a king or queen. Her gift wrapping was matched only by the beauty and splendor of her Christmas decorations. Honorable mention goes to Easter and St Patrick's day as favorite holidays. She loved the pomp and ceremony of Easter and was quite adept at dressing her children to the nines in quite uncomfortable but very adorable Easter outfits. She also loved celebrating St. Patty's day as she was very proud of her Irish heritage. She was too much of a homebody to ever venture far enough to visit Ireland but we remember fondly her "Kiss me I'm Irish"  buttons, "Erin Go Bragh" shirts and leprechaun decorations and figurines.

Tommie was a figurine Queen with an impressive collection of Hummels, Precious Moments, Norman Rockwells, lighthouses, nativities, angels, snow globes, vases, straw baskets with flowers and countless other tchotchkes.

Mom enjoyed sharing fond memories of her childhood. She was famous for telling everyone who would listen, over and over again, about the times she spent with her grandfather, "Pop". They went to Ebbets field to watch Dodger games and she described how uncomfortable it was to sit on the wood plank seats. We deduced that she likely had the opportunity to see Jackie Robinson play early in his career. She rode with Pop to Harlem to pick up meat to stock his butcher shop. She took great pride in being Pop's favorite. She shared many fond memories of her grandmother, Nora. as well. Nora played the piano, drank lots of coffee, played cards, bet on the horses and wore Pop's dress shoes with no socks.

Mom took great pride in keeping a meticulously clean, well organized and tastefully decorated home. She had a peculiar tendency to clean the pots and pans before you were actually done cooking. Procter & Gamble likely had many quarters of windfall profits from her proclivity for Palmolive dish soap and Bounty paper towels to keep her home sparkling clean and invitingly neat.

Tommie spent many years employed in the support of catechism programs in Queens, Nassau and Suffolk New York. She loved her work, built great friendships with co-workers and cherished the children that participated in the programs. She took her first job outside the home in the early 1970s as a part time assistant to Sister Catherine for the catechism program at Sacred Heart in Glendale Queens and was paid $36 every two weeks. She spent 9 years employed as the banquet manager and then reservation manager at the Holiday Inn Hotel at LaGuardia Airport, the very distinct, architecturally round hotel off the Van Wyck expressway.

She loved to sing! She enjoyed the music of Engelbert Humperdink, Barbara Streisand, Perry Como and Dean Martin. Whenever she knew the words you could be sure she would be singing along. She would sing to entertain her young children on long drives to visit Grandma Ducky in Washington DC. Some family favorites included The Army Song, The Bakery Song, Do-Re-Me, My Bill, Ave Maria, Once in Love with Amy, Downtown, Roll Over.

Mom, we are going to miss you as much as you loved us. Rest in peace and until we meet again may God hold you in the palm of his hand!