Mary Therese Keast died on May 15, 2024. Born in Chicago on Oct. 29, 1942 to a charming Italian couple, Frank and Mary Manago, she would become an avid reader, a player of piano and organ, a figure skater, a crafter of crochet and needlepoint, and a believer in the beauty of routine, tradition, faith, and dry wit.
In 1965, she married Richard Keast, which led to traveling, an appreciation of a ready extra layer, and most notably, two children, Heather and Diana, who would both inherit her dark curls and cleverness. As a grandmother, she served with honors in doting on grandchildren Grace and Dominic.
For work, she served as a psychiatric nurse at Pres. St. Luke’s Hospital in Chicago, and later in Ferndale High School’s library, where she aptly applied her well-keptness to the circulation desk.
Mary Therese will be celebrated at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Ferndale on May 22. In lieu of flowers, her family invites donations to the Whatcom County Library Foundation.
