Ann Virginia (King) Farrelly, age 93, of Concord, NH passed away surrounded by family on Wednesday, August 26, 2026 at Granite VNA Hospice House.

Ann was born in Concord, the daughter of the late Joseph A. and Irene (O’Donnell) King. She grew up in the family home on Broadway with her siblings and enjoyed a large extended family of cousins, uncles and beloved aunts. Ann loved to ride her bike in the summer and ice skate at White’s Park in the winter. She was a graduate of Concord High School, Class of 1950, and then earned her degree as an RN from Sacred Heart School of Nursing in Manchester.

Ann’s father is the original proprietor of Joe King’s Shoe Shop, a family-owned and operated retail mainstay in downtown Concord since 1951.

Ann married Joseph R Farrelly on November 11, 1953. She worked tirelessly as a stay-at-home Mother for many years, raising her five sons born between 1955 and 1963 and perennially (unofficially) dominating the Mother of the Year stakes. The family’s Gilmore Street home was for many years a gathering place for neighborhood and school friends. Legendary family cat Big Red, 20 lbs and triple-pawed, oversaw all of this. Delicious homemade meals were served to countless other South End kids besides her own, and no one went without the fresh baked goods made nearly daily. To this day, Ann is “my other mother” to an awesome array of characters from a lifetime of love and caring, many of whom helped to establish the family home nickname of “Club 21” that Ann in later years quite enjoyed laughing about.

She never complained about the endless trips back and forth to the Everett Arena and, with her husband Joe (known to many as Bob), traveling to hockey rinks throughout New England during long winters, many at ungodly hours, nor summers spent driving to Rollins Park and Memorial Field from Pleasant Lake in Deerfield, and later to Bishop Brady High School, for all of her beloved sons’ sporting and cultural events.

In time, Ann returned to work as a Registered Nurse, working for various doctors at the Concord Clinic on Pleasant St.

In 1963, Ann was the catalyst for buying the family summer home on Pleasant Lake in Deerfield, NH, by, as she liked to claim, “kicking over the for-sale sign” to thwart any other potential buyer and thus ending the search for the perfect family place. Ann especially cherished time spent at “the camp.” She taught her sons to swim and was an avid water skier well into her 60s, credited with teaching countless family and visitors how to ski. Other favorite pursuits included gardening, endlessly swimming and time with Joe and family on their beloved pontoon boat. The camp remains in the family to this day, 63 years later, and Pleasant Lake is the better for the years of extensive water quality maintenance and preservation efforts by Joe and Ann.

Family was always the most important thing to Ann. She prioritized and cherished the moments she spent with her husband, sons, grandchildren and, in recent years, great grandchildren. She and Joe traveled to exotic locales during Joe’s long career at IBM, and later in an enviable extended retirement. For two decades they owned a wonderful condo in Englewood, FL, hosting family and friends with pontoon boat rides on Lemon Bay. Ann was an avid card player; even as Alzheimer’s impacted her cognitive abilities over 10 years, she remained sweet-natured throughout and was always up for a game of cribbage, winning far more often than not.

Ann is survived by her husband of 72 years, Joseph Robert Farrelly of Concord, her five sons, Joseph R. Farrelly Jr. and his wife Susan of Concord, Michael Farrelly and his wife Donna of Concord, Thomas Farrelly and his wife Devin of Rye, John Farrelly and his partner Anna Briers of Concord, and James Farrelly and his wife Shannon of Rye. Ann is the adored Nana to 11 Grandchildren (Emma, Sarah, Jonathan, Michael, Daniel, Madelyn, Erin, Thomas, Kathleen, William and James); and seven Great Grandchildren; her brother, Tom King; and two sisters, Donna Luti and Martha Petersen; and many treasured nieces and nephews.

In addition to her parents, she was predeceased by her brother Capt. Joseph F. King, USN, sister Janet K. Smith and beloved nephew LTCDR Joseph F. King, Jr., USN.

Visiting hours will be held on Wednesday, September 2nd from 4 to 6 PM at the Waters Funeral Home, 50 South Main Street, Concord.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Thursday, September 3rd at 10 AM at Christ the King Parish, 72 South Main Street, Concord, NH.

Burial will be at a later date in the Blossom Hill Cemetery in Concord.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Ann’s memory to the Pleasant Lake Preservation Association, PO Box 53, Deerfield, NH 03037, and/or to the Alzheimer’s Association, 15 Constitution Dr. Ste 1G, Bedford, NH 03110.