Gayla Ann Connolly Mulvaney
Born on May 5, 1942 in Colonia, New JerseyDeparted August 17, 2022 in Melbourne, Florida
Gayla Ann Connolly Mulvaney passed August 17, 2022 with her two children Sean and Shannon Mulvaney by her side. Born in Colonia, New Jersey on May 5, 1942 to the late John Connolly and Florence Berg Connolly. She graduated from Woodbridge High School in 1960 and would soon study education at Glassboro State College and graduate in 1964.
She married Thomas Patrick Mulvaney on November 1, 1969 and would start a family together in Hackettson, New Jersey on their farm filled with horses, cows, goats, chickens, dogs and many more animals.
Her son, Sean Mulvaney, was born and in 1970 and her daughter, Shannon Mulvaney, was born in 1976. They would soon all move to Florida in 1978.
The family started one of the first feed stores in Melbourne, FL, called Town and Country Feed. They continued to raise the kids along with many animals on a little farm on Pinewood Road. Gayla loved riding horses and enjoyed caring for all the different animals.
She had a love for teaching and taught first, second and sixth grades. She began her teaching career in New Jersey and would continue it in Melbourne, Florida. She taught at both Holy Trinity and Roy Allen Elementary. She was known for hatching chickens every year in her classroom and often had many other classrooms animals.
Teaching allowed her to travel during the summer breaks. She loved adventure. She went on an African safari, hiked the Inca Trail, rafted the Colorado River, rode horses through France, and enjoyed many beaches throughout the Caribbean, Mexico and Hawaii.
Gayla was always a very active person. She loved riding her bike with friends, working in her garden and walking her different dogs she had throughout the years. She was so adventurous that she went skydiving and got a tattoo on her 60th birthday!
Her greatest joy was her kids, Sean and Shannon. One of the very last things she said was how proud she was of them. She was a very devoted and supportive mother. We know she died happy knowing that they were both there by her side. She said to make sure they took care of each other, and they will. She had many friends that will miss her too and we know she is somewhere reading all the nice messages and comments. (We hope wherever she is she can figure out how to use the computer to read them! Just kidding mom.)
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Touch of Grey Rescue. She always loved animals and they just wrote a children’s book called “Farkle Finds His Forever Home.” Make a donation or buy a book for someone. We know she would really like that.