Marie Whiteman Rooney

Marie was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico on April 2, 1917. As a young adult she moved to Santa Monica, California, where she met and married Francis E. Rooney. Together they had three children, Marie, Patrick and Colleen. She worked for 33 years at Rocketdyne in the engineering department in the space program on both the Saturn/Apollo and Space Shuttle rocket engines.

She was an adventurous and fun-loving spirit, who as a young woman learned to fly and yearned to travel – even to the moon.

She is survived by her three children, Marie Brown (Jerry) of Las Vegas, Nevada, Patrick Rooney (Wendie) of Gilroy, California and Colleen Kent (Arthur) of Marietta, Georgia. She was the grandmother of Stephen Brown, Carrie Harman, Kelly Skaar, Jennifer Seward, Julie Brown, Jaime Rooney, Jonathan Kent and Jeremy Kent, as well as the great grandmother of Ashley, Brennen, Christopher, Kaden, Mackenzie, Brylee, Collin, Alyson, Jackson, Grace, Brightyn, Mayzie, Savanah, Madelyne, Ryland and Kyler. She took great joy and pride in all of them.

She is also survived by three siblings: Eunice Miller and John Whiteman of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Ellen Fowler of Oxnard, California.

She died peacefully on October 19, 2012 at the age of 95.