6/28/1925 – 3/19/2026
Lawrence
Mary Ann Strong died in her sleep Thursday, March 19, 2026. Mary Ann was born on June 28, 1925, in Pawhuska, OK, the daughter of John and Vivian Kennedy. She graduated from Ferry Hall High School in Lake Forest, IL and the University of Oklahoma where she was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority.
Mary Ann was a librarian and secretary at St John’s School from 1965 to 1977. She served on the parish councils of both St. John’s and Corpus Christi Catholic Churches. She served on the boards of Meals on Wheels and Catholic Community Services and was a volunteer reader at Audio Reader for 35 years.
She married Jack W. Strong in 1950. They moved to Lawrence in 1960 and established Strong’s Office Systems. She is survived by her children Marjorie of Bothell, WA, John of Woodstock, MD, and Paul of Hawi, HI.
Services will be held at Corpus Christi this summer at a date to be determined. Interment will be with her husband in the National Cemetery in Ft. Scott, KS.
Memorials may be made to Audio Reader, Girl Scout’s Hidden Valley and St. John’s School and Corpus Christi.
Note: The Lawrence Times is offering Lawrence and Douglas County community members space to publish remembrances of loved ones who lived in this community, free of charge. These pieces are submitted by family and friends of the deceased and not written by our staff. Photos are also provided to the publication, and some may have been altered prior to submission. Read more obituaries here.
We are honored to be able to offer this service free to community members in mourning. We believe the last thing our neighbors need in those difficult moments is another financial matter to worry about. Please support the Times to help us continue providing this service — and news access — for all.
To submit an obituary to The Lawrence Times, please fill out the form at this link. We’re sorry, but we cannot accept obituary submissions via email or other means.
Receive obituaries via email
As of May 2026, we are launching a newsletter that will include obituaries only. Obituaries will no longer appear in our daily emails. You can sign up below to receive any and all of our emails. If you already receive our daily, weekly and/or occasional emails and you want to keep receiving them, please check those boxes as well.
Please make sure you click on the button that says “Yes, subscribe me to this list” in the email you receive or you will not receive future emails. That extra step is to protect you and make sure you’re not getting emails you don’t want.



