Mary Kay Catherine (Gallagher) Weston

Mary “Kay” Catherine Gallagher Weston died on January 19, 2026, at home.

She was the first of five children to Andrew Roddy Gallagher and Dorothy McCabe Gallagher on November 18, 1941. She grew up in the close-knit Irish family in Edison Park and Park Ridge in suburban Chicago. She enjoyed and thrived at St. Patrick’s Academy where she participated in many activities and had a wide circle of friends.  She equally embraced her years at Quincy College where she graduated with a major in political science after having been named to such disparate distinctions as Honor Society and being elected St. Patrick’s Day Queen.

Straight out of college, she was hired by Encyclopedia Britannica as a research specialist where she enjoyed the diverse and challenging work. She rose to become the head of the research staff in Chicago. While there, she became aware of research in education that was being ignored. She moved to Virginia where the College of William and Mary offered her a full-time graduate fellowship in education. While at William and Mary, she also became a reading specialist and was certified in school administration.

Mary Kay became a long-time educator in Poquoson where she started as a reading specialist and after three years, became an administrator at Poquoson Elementary School. She served as principal of both Poquoson Elementary School and as the first principal of Poquoson Primary School. She was able to put both her background as a researcher and the education she had received to enact many innovations to the benefit of students and teachers. She was especially proud that the hard work of the staffs at both PES and PPS was recognized by both schools being named “National Blue Ribbon Schools”.

She and her beloved husband, Robert Weston, were married in the Wren Chapel at William and Mary in 1976. Soon after they started searching for land on which to build their dream home. It was love at first sight when they were shown wooded land on the Poquoson River. They literally did much of the work on the home themselves and grew more and more attached to each other and the home as years passed. Mary Kay felt thankful, exalted and fulfilled after becoming a mother to her wonderful son, Todd Andrew Gallagher.

She was literally a world traveler, having circled the world three times, once in her twenties by air, and twice in her seventies by ship. In the meantime, she adventured in the U.S. camping with her family and sailing the south seas and Mediterranean with friends on a 47-foot boat.

Mary Kay was involved with volunteer work much of her life, from teaching swimming to the blind as a high schooler, to establishing a food distribution program, to teaching English as a second language to refugees, to working for the environment in Poquoson in later years.

She was preceded in death by her parents and sister, Gail Helen Freund. Besides her devoted husband and son, she is survived by her sisters, Andrea Lee Hagner, Patricia Izora Mason and brother Brian Bruce Gallagher (Maureen). She is also survived by nieces and nephews, Catherine, John, and Andrew Hagner (Kerry), Amanda Freund, Michael (Meagan) and Caitlin Gallagher, and Juliana and Kyle Weston; and seven great nieces and nephews.

A celebration of Mary Kay's life will be held 2:00 p.m. April 25, 2026 at the Poquoson Yacht Club. 

Arrangements and heartfelt guidance through Claytor Rollins Funeral Home.

Online condolences to claytorrollins.com.

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