Mary Connor
SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — Mary Connor, a village resident known for being the longest-serving member of the South Orange Rescue Squad, died in her home July 17 following a short illness. She was 82.
Born in Newark in 1932, Connor spent most of her life in South Orange, eventually joining the SORS in 1969. For the next 40 years she put her heart into the organization, serving as president, captain and secretary at various times — all while saving countless lives. She retired from EMT duties in 2006 but remained involved with the administration until her death.
Aside from the SORS, Connor was active in other village groups, becoming the first lioness in the South Orange Lions Club as well as its Woman of the Year. She was also a volunteer for Our Lady of Sorrows Church and was once named South Orange Villager of the Month.
In fact, Connor was so respected in South Orange that the village lowered its flags to half-staff when she died. The SORS has also announced that it will name its new squad building after her upon its completion.
Many SORS members past and present are particularly feeling Connor’s loss. President Dan Cohen told the News-Record that she will always be remembered as a mother figure to the squad, who shaped generations of volunteers under her guidance and made the organization what it is today. She might have been a strict enforcer of the rules, but Cohen said everyone loved her and will miss her quick-witted personality.
“She had a great sense of humor,” Cohen said in a July 22 phone interview. “She was a tough cookie, but she really cared deeply for everybody. Underneath her tough exterior you knew she was looking out for you. And she basically dedicated 40 years of her life to putting other people ahead of herself, taking care of her community.”
Former SORS President Sherry Weintraub agreed that the squad was Connor’s life, pointing out that she went above and beyond to help others. For that, Weintraub said, she was truly a “one-of-a-kind person.”
“To me, she is ‘Saint Mary’ because she gave up her life for the people of South Orange who needed help,” Weintraub told the News-Record in a July 24 phone interview. “She was always there, day or night. She missed a lot of family parties and a lot of family dinners. She was a selfless person.”
Connor made a lot of friends as a result of that commitment, according to former SORS President Sharon Mayers Schwarz. Mayers Schwarz recalled remarking to Connor that she was like the mayor of the village after hearing dozens of people call out to her while riding in a St. Patrick’s Day parade. Everyone around town loved her, Mayers Schwarz said.
That included Mayers Schwarz, who developed a close friendship with Connor while riding in the ambulance with her for nearly 30 years. She said she has many fond memories of working with her, from delivering babies to saving a person’s life with CPR. She said sometimes they would get calls while swimming in the pool, so they would have to run out, pull their jumpsuits on and dash to the rig without even drying off.
“It’s difficult because every time I see one of our rigs in town, I have so many memories of Mary and me riding together all those years,” Mayers Schwarz told the News-Record in a July 24 phone interview. “She will be missed.”
That sentiment was echoed by former SORS President Lawrence Bernstein, who served as Connor’s crew chief when she first started volunteering. After years working together, Bernstein told the News-Record he will always remember her as a “fabulous” worker and as a person who was adroit at her job and treated everyone with the utmost respect. Overall, he said he cannot praise her enough for her contributions to the squad.
“She was the best,” Bernstein said in a July 27 phone interview. “She did more for the squad than any other individual in the history of the squad.”
Connor is survived by her sister, Jane O’Donoghue; her nephew, John O’Donoghue; her cousin, Henry Touhey; and many nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents, niece and four brothers, including Peter Connor, who posthumously won the Congressional Medal of Honor for diving on top of a grenade in Vietnam. The Peter S. Connor Memorial Swimming Pool was named in his honor.