Geneva Zarr O'Maley Obituary (1927

Geneva F. O’Maley died at home on January 8, 2010. Funeral services will be at 1:00 p.m. Wednesday, January 13 at The Louis Memorial Chapel, 6830 Troost Ave. Burial at Rose Hill Cemetery. She was born in 1927 in Kansas City, MO to Ethel Hamerslough and Bernard H. Zarr (Czarlinsky.) Geneva Flora Zarr graduated Southwest High School and studied philosophy at Skidmore College. In 1947 she married Stanley H. Durwood, founder of AMC Theatres and inventeor of the multiplex movie theatre. They had seven children. She divorced Mr. Durwood in 1977 and in 1979 moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked on Senator Tom Eagleton’s staff. She returned to Kansas City in 1981 and the following year married George T. O’Maley, a marriage that lasted until his death in 1999. Throughout her life, Mrs. O’Maley enjoyed pursuing her interests in philosophy and literature through the Carolyn Benton Cockefair continuing education courses at UMKC. She also maintained civic interests, enjoying involvement with the 1976 Democratic Convention in Kansas City and the Kansas City Sister City Association in 1977. A natural athlete, she enjoyed tennis her entire adult life until scoliosis made it impossible. She also loved travel; family-life provided many colorful vacations, and in her fifties she took a tour of the Cradle of Civilization near the Tigris-Euphrates. She journeyed with Mr. O’Maley to Ireland and regularly to La Jolla, CA, and she took great pleasure in visiting her children across the country. Mrs. O’Maley is survived by her brothers, Ralph C. Zarr and M. Benjamin Zarr; a sister-in-law, Paula Zarr; children Carol Journagan, Edward Durwood, Thomas Durwood, Elissa Grodin, Brian Durwood and Peter Durwood; sons-in-law Jeff Journagan and Charles Grodin; daughter-in-law Margit Anderegg; thirteen grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews. Her third child, Andrew, died shortly after birth. She will be deeply, deeply missed by family and friends who delighted in her warmth, grace, eloquence and laughter.