Doris Conway

On May 14, 2021, at 11:05 pm Doris Catherine Conway passed away peacefully at the age of 99 ½ at the North Port, Florida home of her daughter, Aleta Conway.

Born November 10, 1921, in Scranton, PA, she was the daughter of Luigi (Louie) Mandarino Vitall and Umbertina (Bertha) Gherardi Piat. She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Joseph T. Conway; her two sisters, Louise Azzato Compagna and Irene Weems; and a son, Joseph Wells Conway.

Doris attended the Audubon Elementary School (P.S. 42) and graduated from Scranton Central High School in 1939, where she was president of the OHH Sorority. Doris always stayed in touch with her friends in the class of CHS ‘39, serving on the Reunion Planning Committees every five years. From the age of nine to eighteen, she also formally studied ballet, for which she maintained a lifelong passion that she passed to her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

In 1941 Doris, who especially cherished children, entered a pediatric nursing program at Albany Medical Center, a course of study she loved, but left to marry, on February 3, 1942, Joseph T. Conway, who was leaving for the Pacific theatre with the U.S. Navy in WWII.  Since married women were not allowed in nursing programs in those years, she never continued her training, but used the skills she acquired in nursing her own children.

Doris was employed at the Scranton Public Library from 1967 to 1984, first as a public service paraprofessional, and later as a cataloguer, taking courses in library science at Marywood College to enhance her skills. Doris loved her years at the “SPL” during which she easily mastered the computer as part of her job. Doris maintained her computer savvy into her late 90s, keeping in touch with family and friends via e-mail and social media.

In addition to her love of dance, Doris will be remembered for her love of fine art; great literature; music; dance and Broadway plays; her commitment to social justice; her love of animals, especially cats; and her warm hospitality, which included making homemade pasta dinners for family and friends. Always eager to learn something new, Doris took university courses well into her 80s including French at Marywood College, and a creative writing course with author Peter Gardner at the Long Ridge Writer’s Group of West Redding, CT.  Beginning in her mid-sixties, Doris also traveled widely throughout the United States visiting family, as well as several trips abroad, fulfilling her lifelong dream of seeing Paris, Chartres, and Provence in France, and Rome, Florence, Assisi, and Fabriano, in Italy, where she visited her Italian cousins.

Above all, however, Doris will be remembered as a woman with a loving and caring heart. There are people you meet once in a lifetime who have a lasting impact- not because they were famous or wealthy--but because they saw you and heard you and made you feel you mattered in a way no one else ever did. That was Doris Conway to a ‘T’ - to everyone who knew her as a mother, a grandmother, an aunt, a sister, a friend , or even a stranger, were better for having known her. In this day of noise and self-promotion, Doris had a rare gift - she listened. Doris wanted to know everything about you and rarely shared anything about herself : not the fact that she’d struggled and gone through trials of her own;  not the fact that she almost single- handedly raised six children, imparting on them her wisdom and kindness and compassion for both the least and the great among us. Instead, she led by quiet example, and everyone whose life she touched felt fortunate to have known her.

Doris is survived by her children, Pamela Mayer (Larry),VA; Cassandra Devine, Clarks Green; Kevin (Lisa Connor), Pocono Manor, PA; Melissa (Tim Luther), Carlsbad, CA; and Aleta,  North Port, FL; and daughter-in-law, Joanne Conway, Scranton.  She is also survived by eight grandchildren: Sean Devine, M.D. (Elizabeth), Scranton, PA; Jaclene Devine (Brad Smith), Clarks Summit, PA; Heather Mayer, VA; Kevin Wells Conway (Beverly), Clarks Summit, PA; Christopher “Sunev” Conway (Lucia Louise), Los Angeles, CA; Kira Coviello (Noah Sullum), Doylestown, PA; Marissa Conway Langan (Matthew), Scranton; and Connor Reyes, Pocono Manor, PA; eleven great-grandchildren, and twenty-seven nieces and nephews from the Conway and Weems families.

The funeral will be held on Thursday at 10am at the Church of St. Gregory, 330 N Abington Rd, Clarks Summit, PA 18411, with a mass of Christian Burial to be celebrated by Rev. Stephen A. Asomah, both in person and on Zoom. The family will receive relatives and friends from 9:30-10am at the church.  Instead of flowers, please send donations in Doris’ memory to the Scranton Public Library, 500 Vine Street, Scranton, PA, 18509 or The Humane Society of Lackawanna County, 967 Griffin Pond Road, South Abington Township, PA 18411.

Zoom Link:

Topic: Doris Conway Mass of Christian Burial
Time: May 20, 2021 10:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

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