Yvonne Agnes Mahoney, 91, of St. Leonard a loving mother of three and a former teacher at St. Francis de Sales School in Washington, D.C., died peacefully in her home in St. Leonard, Md. on July 21, 2011. Yvonne was born on November 28, 1919 in Laconia, New Hampshire to Alma and Alfred Gonthier.

She was the oldest of seven and was raised in Amesbury, Massachusetts. She graduated from Amesbury High School in 1937. Following the outbreak of World War II, she came to Washington to work for the War Department and eventually the Pentagon, where she served as a secretary.

In June 1946, she married James (Jim) Mahoney of Washington DC who had served with the army in the Aleutian Islands. They first lived in an apartment on "E" Street NW in a building located near the present day site of the Watergate and Kennedy Center. In 1951 they moved with their first two children, Jimmie and Frances, to a house on Adams Street in Northeast Washington. Mary Margaret, their third child, was born in 1954. During the 1950's Yvonne also helped raise the son of a friend. The family vacationed each summer with relatives at a lakeside cottage in New Hampshire where many happy memories were made.

Yvonne was an active member of St. Francis de Sales Catholic Parish in Northeast Washington, where she was a member of the Sodality and the Legion of Mary, and where she volunteered as the church sacristan. From 1959 through 1979 she taught the parish school's kindergarten class, becoming the first lay person to teach at St. Francis de Sales, a Catholic School that was staffed by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Chestnut Hill in Philadelphia. Yvonne quickly became loved and respected by all within the school community for the devotion and dedication she exhibited to every child who passed through her kindergarten class.

Several years after her retirement, she and her husband, Jim, moved to Bowie, Md. Following an extensive illness with Parkinson's, Jim passed in 1989. Yvonne remained in Bowie for another 20 years where she made numerous friends and attended daily Mass. In early 2009, she moved to St. Leonard, Md. to live adjacent to her daughter and son-in law, Mary and George McKeon. Until her passing, she remained active, enjoying her family and caring for the family dogs.

Yvonne is survived by three sisters living in Massachusetts, and by her three children, James Mahoney Jr. of Columbia, Md., Frances Mattos of Bowie, Md. and Mary Margaret McKeon of St. Leonard, Md. She is also survived by six grandchildren: Danny McKeon, Ryan McKeon, Katie McKeon, Sarah Gong, Rachael Mattos and Brendan Mahoney; and by three great-grandchildren, Madelyn McKeon, Melanie McKeon and Andrew Joseph Mahoney.

Yvonne was especially grateful for the wonderful care that Hospice of Calvert County provided her during her final days.

Funeral Arrangements were handled by the Rausch Funeral Home, P.A. of Port Republic, MD.