Kerry E. Mahoney

Kerry Eileen Mahoney, 77, passed away on July 26 at Edgewood Aspen Wind assisted living facility in Cheyenne, Wyo. The cause of death was advanced Alzheimer’s.

Kerry was born in Casper, Wyo., to J. F. “Barry” and Ada Jane Mahoney on Aug. 25, 1947, and rarely slowed down after that. Energetic and always active as a child and teenager, she loved being outdoors, especially exploring in the fields and ponds on the outskirts of Casper for “critters”, such as horned toads, salamanders and crawdads.

She was an athletic teenager who loved swimming sports. Demonstrating her fluid, graceful diving abilities, she won the diving championship at the Casper Country Club swim meet several summers in a row. She also remained a fine skier as she grew into adulthood. Kerry stayed fit all her life, taking long walks several days a week in a park near her home in Denver.

Her love of animals, ranging from her family’s household pets to her always present cats in her homes to wild animals, lasted all her life. She donated faithfully to wild animal-support groups.

Kerry, who was named after County Kerry in Ireland, graduated from Natrona County High School in 1965. She studied at Casper College, and held a variety of clerical positions in Cheyenne, before working as Deputy Clerk for Laramie County Clerk Janet Whitehead during Whitehead’s first and second terms, from 1975 to 1981.

She earned a Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Denver in 1988 and built a career as a dedicated social worker in the Denver area. From 1990 to 2005, she worked at Denver Area Youth Services, where she was Program Director for the PATHS Program (Positive Alternatives Through Home Services).

Kerry then went on to serve as DUI Program Manager for the National Institute for Change in Denver from 2007 to 2014 and completed her career providing addiction-counselling services at Sandstone Care. During this time she also provided periodic group counselling for men preparing to be released from incarceration at the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility in Cañon City, Colo. She retired from Sandstone Care during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Kerry, who battled alcohol abuse in her younger years stayed sober for almost four decades, with help of the AA program. She was a compassionate woman who continued her commitment to sobriety by helping people resume a normal life following their recovery from addiction.

Social services such as Kerry provided can be emotionally challenging work, but she stayed positive and enjoyed engaging with and counselling the clients she served. Most all her life, she laughed easily and enjoyed hearing and telling stories with family and friends.

Kerry, the fourth of five children in the Mahoney household, is survived by her daughter, Maggie Hartzheim of Cheyenne, grandchildren Hannah and Brice; a sister, Ann Mahoney of Mill Valley, Calif., and a brother, Jerry Mahoney of St. Gallen, Switzerland. She was preceded in death by her sisters, Sheila Colgin, of Plano, Texas, and Honor Mahoney, of Sheridan, Wyo.

Family members will celebrate the lives of Kerry and Honor next summer by spreading their ashes in Yellowstone Park, where they often visited together.

Donations to the North American Bear Center and World Wildlife Fund in Kerry’s name will be appreciated.