Jean A. Lally

Jean E. Lally, a long-time resident of Willoughby, died Sept. 28, 2014 at her home. She was 87 and died of apparent heart failure, surrounded by family.

Graveside services will be held Oct. 25 at Whitehaven Memorial Park in Mayfield Village, followed by a memorial gathering. Details will be announced when they are confirmed.

Born Dec. 8, 1926 in Cleveland, the former Jean Kirk graduated from Willoughby Union High School in 1944.

She loved the written word, reflected in her passion for books, newspapers, crossword puzzles – and Jeopardy. She called out answers to her television screen for years and watched her last episode two days before her death. Her voice down to a whisper, she slowly responded to the Final Jeopardy clue – correctly and in the form of a question.

Mrs. Lally was a devoted member of the water aerobics classes at the Lake County YMCA – West End Branch in Willoughby, where she developed deep friendships. She was a steadfast Browns fan, and loyal follower of the Indians and Cavaliers.

She was the daughter of Delmer A. and Flora Bruce Kirk, a 1913 graduate of Willoughby Union. Hers was a line of entrepreneurial women. Her widowed grandmother, Hannah Bruce, became a cook and later opened a restaurant in Cleveland to support her children. Her mother saw her own family through the Depression by operating restaurants.

Mrs. Lally, who attended Fenn College, eventually joined her mother in the business. When her mother sold Kirk’s Diner on Ivanhoe Road in Cleveland in 1960, Mrs. Lally went to night school, learned shorthand and found work as a secretary, starting at Sherwood Refractories on Octavia Road in Cleveland. She acquired bookkeeping and increasingly sophisticated business skills and eventually became a founding employee of Concorde Castings, Inc. in Eastlake, recruited by the late Bill Lund, the former Browns halfback. When she officially retired in 1991, she was administrative vice president.

“Typical of new, small start-ups we all wore several hats,” said Paul Brandt, retired Concorde president. “Jean probably wore the most hats. Her talents and responsibilities spanned virtually all of the administrative facets of a small company.” That included overseeing personnel, purchasing, bookkeeping and writing all the checks “on the infrequent occasions when we had any money in the bank,” he said.

Mike Skerritt, an engineer who worked with her at Sherwood and later Concorde, watched her evolve from secretary to executive. When she first joined sales at Sherwood she would bring a pot of coffee into the department every morning. One day, no coffee.

“When I asked Jean where the coffee was, she told me it was downstairs where it always was, and that it was my turn to bring it up,” he said. “From that day on Jean never had to go downstairs to get a pot of coffee.”


She is survived by her daughters, Carol Lally Metz of Hyde Park, N.Y., executive director
of the International Foodservice Editorial Council and Kathleen Lally, a Washington Post editor, and son-in-law William Englund of Baltimore, Md; three granddaughters, Kate Englund (and her husband David Rothenberg), Molly Englund and Alexandra Metz and great-grandson, Theo Rothenberg. She also leaves her brother and sister-in-law David and Mary Kirk of Painesville, sister-in-law Joan Kirk of Apollo Beach, Fla. and many nieces and nephews and their families. In the last years of her life, Mrs. Lally had the daily company of Marian Santee, a dear friend and caretaker.

Her family thanks Patty Verbic, Darlene Monaghan, Nancy Elston, and the healthcare staff of Hospice of the Western Reserve for their excellent care and kindness.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her sister, Harriet Adams, and brother, Bruce Kirk. Another sister, Alice (Shay) Mortensen, died Sept. 26, 2014.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions in her memory to Hospice of the Western Reserve, Inc., 17876 St. Clair Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44110-2602 or online at www.hospicewr.org/donate.