Madelon O'Brien Healey

Healey, Madelon O'Brien, 91, died peacefully under the care of Hospice at Bayfront Medical Center on Friday, August 9, 2013. She was the widow of James F. Healey, a business and civic leader who died August 29, 1992. Mr. Healey is credited for bringing professional baseball to Pinellas County and for being instrumental in the establishment of the Salvador Dali Museum. Madelon was born and raised in Upper Sandusky, Ohio where she attended high school. She attended Ohio University, Athens, Ohio where she was a member of the Chi Omega sorority. After college, she went to work as a secretary at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. It was here, she met and married an Air Force officer James F. Healey. For the next 13 years she was the wife of a highly specialized Air Force officer. When Mr. Healey resigned from the Air Force with the rank of colonel, the Healeys moved around the country. It was Mr. Healey's position with Honeywell, Inc that brought them to St. Petersburg. Mr. Healey then took the helm of Milton Roy Co. Though married to one of the area's most prominent men, Madelon Healey, in an interview in The St. Petersburg Times (now The Tampa Bay Times) refused to take any of the credit saying that "he's a pretty self-sufficient guy." Her focus was raising the couple's two sons. She enjoyed playing golf at Sunset Country Club, and tennis at the Racquet and Feather Sound Clubs and the St. Petersburg Tennis Center. Playing bridge with friends at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club was also a favorite pastime. After moving to Florida, she also listed fishing and crabbing among her new hobbies. There was always a crab net at her backdoor. An avid gardener, her passion was orchids. She was a charter member of the Dali Museum and among the first to become a member of the Order of Salvador, an elite group within the Dali support group. She was also a member of the Museum of Fine Arts, where she did many needlepoint projects which benefitted the museum. She is survived by her sons John Healey, St. Petersburg and James Healy, Costa Rica. Her grandson Michael Healey and his wife Katie of San Francisco; and granddaughter Jamie (Mrs. Steve) Cough of Cummings, GA and a great-granddaughter Chloe Cough also of Cummings. Also surviving are her sister Mrs. Daniel (Harriet) Harvey, niece Mrs. George (Jane) Stovall and nephew Daniel Harvey, Jr. all of St. Petersburg; and niece Mrs. James (Susan)Mertz of Tallahassee. A memorial mass will be held Saturday, August 17 at 10:30 a.m. at St. Paul's Catholic Church, 1800 12th Street North, St. Petersburg with the Monsignor Robert Gibbons officiating. Burial will be private at a later date. Memorials can be made to St. Paul's Catholic Church, 1800 12th Street North, St. Petersburg, FL 33704 or the Suncoast Hospice Foundation, 5771 Roosevelt Blvd., Clearwater, FL 33760.