Althea Hall McAleer

92, died peacefully at South County Hospital on Tuesday, February 8, 2011, with family by her side. The daughter of the late Milton Herbert and Edith Holden Hall, she was born in East Providence and lived in Riverside until 1965. She was the wife of the late John Bernard McAleer; the couple retired to Elam Street in Wickford in 1975.

Mrs. McAleer graduated from Pembroke College in 1940, working in the Providence Office of the Army Corps of Engineers until 1944. She was a draftsman for the Engineering Dept. at Brown University from 1960 to 1965; then she and her family moved to Alexandria, Virginia. She earned a Masters Degree in Library Science at the University of Maryland in 1969. She was Head Librarian at the Fairfax County Central Library at the time of her retirement.

In Wickford she volunteered at the North Kingstown Free Library and served on various committees at St. Paul's Episcopal Church. She co-authored 'The Graveyards of North Kingstown,' published in 1992, and also compiled 'Elm Grove Cemetery Inscriptions' in 2000. Very interested in genealogy and history, she continued to work on family memoirs until her death. An active volunteer, she participated in many community, environmental, historic and peace action groups, including FISH, Meals on Wheels, and the Allen-Madison House. She was a member of the Wickford Yacht Club.

Mrs. McAleer was also an avid reader and book collector. She played violin in high school and college, and, as an adult, played chamber music and in the Brown University Orchestra. An enthusiastic gardener, she took great pleasure in her flower and vegetable gardens.

She is survived by two daughters, Janice McAleer of North Kingstown and Nancy McAleer of Temecula, CA.; two sons, Jack McAleer of Pebble Beach, CA. and Holden McAleer of Baltimore, MD; eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. She was the sister of the late Edwina Hall McKinney.

Her Requiem Eucharist will be held Saturday, March 19, 2011 at 11:00 am in St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 55 Main Street, Wickford, with a gathering to follow in the Church Hall. Burial in the Old Narragansett Church Cemetery will be private. Relatives and friends are invited and may call on Friday, March 18th from 5:00 to 7:00 pm in THE CRANSTON-MURPHY FUNERAL HOME of WICKFORD, 140 West Main Street, Wickford Village, North Kingstown.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 55 Main Street, North Kingstown, RI 02852 or to The Friends of the North Kingstown Free Library, 100 Boone Street, North Kingstown, RI 02852.

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