Mary Ann Gragan

Mary Ann Gragan entered her eternal rest on Friday, January 2nd, 2026, at the age of ninety-six. She was the beloved wife of David Edward Gragan (d. 2010). She was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, where she attended parochial schools for most of her childhood and graduated at the age of sixteen from Woodlawn High School in 1945.

To support her family, she moved in with relatives in the Congress Heights neighborhood of Southeast Washington DC and began working for Western Union. She attended Mass at the Parish of The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, where she was a member of the choir, and where she met her future husband, David Edward. They were married in Washington in 1950.

David was early in his 30-year career as a US Marine, and thus Mary Ann began an extraordinary chapter in her rich life as a military spouse. For the next three decades, she raised five children in places such as Washington DC, Quantico Virginia, Okinawa Japan, the Philippines, California, North Carolina, Tennessee, and finally Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Moving to the city in 1973, the family fell in love with Pittsburgh and she continued to raise the three youngest children in Mt. Lebanon.

Mary Ann was a tireless volunteer, helping others through the Navy Relief Society, the American Red Cross, serving as a poll watcher in numerous elections, and generally being a good citizen and neighbor. She was a member of the church choir everywhere she ever lived, finally at Our Lady of Grace in Mt. Lebanon for over 30 years. She retired from Mt. Lebanon Public Schools, where she worked in the lunchroom and library at Hoover Elementary for over 20 years.

Mary Ann is predeceased by her mother Mary Ann Owen, her husband David, brother Michael, sister Martha, grandson David Wagner, and granddaughters Anna and Rachel. She is survived by her children, Linda (Jesus) Mejia, David, Kathy (John Downs) Wagner, Michael (Paige), and Stephen (Sophia), as well as her brother Charles Martin Owen and her sister Rose Marie Fisher, and thirteen grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Mary Ann excelled as a wife, a mother, and a person. She was and is a model of love and care for others, a servant of God through her Catholic faith, and a humble contributor to our lives and to this world. She will be missed.

Friends received on Wednesday, January 7, from 2-6pm at Laughlin Cremation & Funeral Tributes, 222 Washington Rd. Pittsburgh, PA 15216. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Thursday, January 8, at 11:30am in Our Lady of Grace Church, St. Michael the Archangel Parish, 310 Kane Blvd. Pittsburgh, PA 15243.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Mary Ann Gragan, please visit our floral store.