Eileen Donnelly

Eileen Donnelly was born June 9th, 1945 at Georgetown University Hospital to Josephine Donnelly (Parreco) & John Donnelly. She was raised with her four siblings in Northwest Washington, DC: John, Linda, Martha, and Tina.

She attended grade school at Blessed Sacrament School in northwest Washington, DC and high school at Stone Ridge in Bethesda, Maryland. She received a degree in nursing from St. Joseph's College in 1967 after which she joined the Navy for a year until her first son was born. She lived in the Washington, DC area her entire life. During her professional career she worked as a nurse and case manager in several local hospitals and private practices.

Eileen was preceded in death by her parents and her brother John Donnelly.

Eileen is survived by her her sisters Linda Schmitt (Donnelly), Martha Donnelly, Tina Donnelly; her sons Christopher and spouse Melissa Butson, Sean and spouse Kathy Butson; and her six grandchildren Dillon, Everett, Connor, Aidan, Theodore and Gwendolen Butson.

Visitation will be from 10AM-11AM on Friday, March 13, 2026 followed by a funeral Mass from 11AM to NOON at Blessed Sacrament, 3630 Quesada St NW, Washington, DC 20015. Burial will follow at the Fort Lincoln Cemetery in Brentwood, MD.

All that we can know about those that we have loved and lost is that they would wish us to remember them with a more intensified realization of their reality. What is essential does not die, but clarifies. The highest tribute to the dead is to see them with clarity.

-Thornton Wilder, adapted by Eileen Donnelly