Valerie O’Reilly

By VTD Obituaries on September 1, 2023

Born Jan. 14, 1934

North Adams, Massachusetts

Died Aug. 24, 2023

Burlington, Vermont

Details of services

Valerie O’Reilly, 89, our beloved mother of Burlington, VT passed away at home on August 24, 2023, with family by her side. Valerie was born on January 14, 1934 in North Adams, MA, the daughter of A. Edna (Fish) and N. Valmore Bombardier. Valerie grew up in North Adams, attending Notre Dame Catholic Elementary School and graduating from Drury High School in 1952. She had many fond memories of summer days spent with her cousins at her maternal grandparents’ home in Granville, NY and visiting with extended family on Lake St. Catherine, as well as daily lunches during the school year with her paternal grandparents, and enjoyed sharing stories of those times with her own children and grandchildren. She attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and graduated in 1956 with a Bachelor’s Degree in History. She was a proud member of Sigma Kappa sorority and kept in touch throughout her lifetime with 3 of her “sisters” and attended a number of college reunions with them. It was at U Mass that she met her husband, Robert O’Reilly, and they were married in September of 1957 at Notre Dame Church in North Adams, MA. She was also employed for a year after her graduation by Procter and Gamble, and was able to travel through the United States as a result.

Valerie was a teacher in the Adult Basic Education Program in the 1960s and early 1970s, assisting adults to prepare for the GED exam and obtain their high school diploma. She also taught second grade at St. Francis Xavier School in Winooski for four years. She was employed by the State of Vermont, starting in the Agency of Human Services, Department of Economic Services in Burlington and moving to the Vermont Department of Health in 1984. At the Health Department, she began her career as a Health Outreach Assistant in the Burlington District Office, providing home visitation for parental support and staffing WIC clinics. In 1990 she transferred into a role with VDH Central Office Administrative staff, and she retired from state service in 2000. Valerie clocked many hours of volunteer service to her beloved community of Winooski, where she raised her family, and served as a member of the Planning Committee, playing an instrumental role in establishing the river walk along the Winooski River. She was also involved in the mid-1970s with the Vermont Alliance, and was a key participant in an Alliance initiative that helped improve the Winooski School District by establishing an at school lunch program and expanding the school board to five members. She always loved working with children, and participated in the Girl Scouts of America as a local Brownie, Junior and Cadette leader. The troops she led would make yearly camping trips at Twin Hills in Huntington, and she spearheaded Cadette troop trips to Washington D.C., New York City, and Quebec City, helping the young women raise the necessary funds and make the arrangements for activities, such as meeting their Congressional delegation and attending a Broadway play. She also was involved as a board member and a long term volunteer with the Milton Family Community Center. After her retirement from state government, she increased the time spent in her role as a Guardian ad Litem for the Division of Family Service, serving in this role for over 20 years. This work involved countless hours of volunteer service, advocating in court, in support meetings as an educational surrogate, and with individual families, to support the needs of some of our state’s most vulnerable: children moving in and out of the foster care system. Other organizations in which she participated were Bread for the World, Pax Christi, Fanny Allen Auxiliary, the Decisions program at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility, Project Self Sufficiency where she was chosen to be their Commencement Speaker in 1990, and the Flynn Spirit ushering program in Burlington which was a role that she enjoyed immensely for over 25 years. She was a communicant of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Winooski where she served on their Liturgy Committee and was a Eucharistic Minister and religious educator there for many years.

Valerie had a deep appreciation of the value of lifelong learning and education, and encouraged her children and grandchildren to pursue higher education and to keep themselves informed and aware of the pressing issues facing their community and society at large. As an avid reader, she instilled this trait in her daughters as well. She encouraged her children to be curious and explore, and to develop their interests at great personal sacrifice. She loved her grandchildren, and loved spending summer days poolside and at the lakeshore with them during their summer vacations. She especially enjoyed finding the perfect birthday and Christmas gifts for them and for other members of her family. Valerie was a devoted daughter to her own parents and assisted in the care of her mother during numerous illnesses, and in care for her father at the end of his life.

She was predeceased by her husband, Robert F. O’Reilly and parents Edna and Valmore Bombardier and her brothers Reverend Dennis Bombardier, Neal Bombardier, and Gary Bombardier; brothers-in-law James, John, David, Bernard and Myles O’Reilly, Miles Sawyer, Fred Turowski, Ted Mielcarz; and sisters-in-law Mary Sawyer, Frances Mielcarz, Emily Turowski, Helen O’Reilly, Darlene O’Reilly, Virginia O’Reilly, Elizabeth O’Reilly, Connie O’Reilly, and Alma O’Reilly.

Valerie is survived by four children: Kathleen O’Reilly of Manchester Center Vermont, Maureen O’Reilly(Kevin Thornton) of Brandon, Vermont, Colleen O’Reilly (Antonio Rankin) of Annapolis, MD, and Jacqueline O’Reilly (Stanton Welch) of Silver Spring, MD; 9 grandchildren, Dylan Mulvey, Veronica Mulvey, Kevin Mulvey, Robert Mulvey, Brigid Mulvey, Brian Thornton, Julianna Rankin, Myles Rankin, and Marielle Welch. She is also survived by her sisters-in-law Colleen Boles, Joan O’Reilly and Tricia O’Reilly, and numerous nieces and nephews.

Visitation hours will take place at the Lavigne Funeral Home in Winooski on Sunday, September 17 from 4-7 p.m. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at St. Francis Xavier Church at 3 St. Peter St., Winooski, Vermont on Monday, September 18 at 11 a.m. Private burial in North Adams, MA will take place at a later date. To honor Valerie’s life, memorial donations may be made to St. Francis Xavier Parish at the address above or to Maryknoll at Maryknollsociety.org or Maryknollsisters.org

Our family would like to thank the caregivers of Home Instead for the time and attention they devoted to our mother’s care over the course of the past months.

Valerie’s — our mother’s life — was informed, defined, and directed by her deep Catholic faith. The words attributed to St. Teresa of Avila, the great Catholic Doctor of the Church and Mystic, are words that we believe describe her life as a good and faithful servant of her Lord and a devoted mother, wife, sister, grandmother, and friend to many:

“Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks with compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Valerie O’Reilly.