Margaret 'Marge' Laverty, 338 Lunn Blvd., Farrell, PA passed away peacefully at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday (3-9-10) in UPMC Horizon Hospital, Farrell after a brief illness. She was 80.

Mrs. Laverty was born June 19, 1929 in Sharpsville, the daughter of Thomas A. and Margaret C. Hether Merat.

A lifelong area resident, she was a 1947 graduate of Sharpsville High School.

She was a homemaker and worked for nearly twenty years in the office's at Sears department store in the Shenango Valley Mall.

A devout catholic, she was a longtime member of Church of Notre Dame in Hermitage. Mrs. Laverty was an active member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Ladies Auxiliary, Post 5286, Farrell, where she held many offices and was currently the sitting President. As a member of the VFW, she enjoyed volunteering her time catering funeral dinners for many years and helping at Christmas time to bring a special holiday for the students at the Scotland School for Veterans' Children, Scotland, Pa. She also loved reading, crocheting, playing bingo, traveling to the Outer Banks, and in her early years she enjoyed bowling with the Our Lady of Fatima Church league at Sunset Bowl, Farrell. She enjoyed all sports and rooting for her Pittsburgh Teams. Most of all, she loved her family and spending time with her grandchildren and great grandchildren who will sadly miss her.

Her husband Thomas A. Laverty whom she married August 10, 1950 in St. Bartholomew Church, Sharpsville, by the late Rev. Thomas F. McGovern, passed away on February 28, 2010.

She is survived by her three daughters, Patricia 'Patti' Matijevich and her husband Milan, West Middlesex; Mary Kay White, Cochranton; and Lynda Waliga, Hermitage; two sons, Michael Laverty and his wife Marianne, Brookfield; and Timothy Laverty and his wife Katrina, Highlands, North Carolina; twelve grandchildren, Milan, Kristina and Dawnelle Matijevich; Joseph, Michael and Justin Laverty; Adam and Kevin White; Alyssa and Anna Waliga; and Kelsey and Seth Schmitt; ten great grandchildren, Jonni Lynn, Tessa, Vanessa, Chase, Taylor, Tyler, Brooklyn, Alyvia, Dillon, and Reese; two sisters, Rilla Svirbly, Sharon, and Regina 'Jean' DeGerolamo, Farrell, two sisters in law, Esther A. and Connie Merat, and several nieces and nephews.

In addition to her parents and husband, she was preceded in death by an infant daughter, Theresa Laverty, and two brothers, Thomas E. and Robert H. Merat.

The family suggests memorial contributions be made in her memory to the American Cancer Society.

Calling hours: 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. Friday (3-12-10) and from 10:00 until 10:25 a.m. Saturday (3-13-10) in J. Bradley McGonigle Funeral Home and Crematory, Inc., 1090 E. State St., Sharon.

Friends may email condolences by visiting our web site at www.McGonigleFuneralHomeandCrematory.com.

Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Saturday (3-13-10) in Church of Notre Dame, Hermitage, with Msgr. Edward J. Zeitler, senior associate, as celebrant. A brief prayer service will take place in the funeral home at 10:25 prior to leaving for the church.

Interment: St. Rose Cemetery, Hermitage.