Foley, Rose McDermott, 1889-1956 (Derham Hall Class of 1909)

Biography

Rose was born Rosella McDermott in Clontarf in western Minnesota in February 1889 to parents Dominick McDermott and Rose Broderick McDermott. She was a 1909 graduate of Derham Hall High School. She married Timothy P. Foley, who had been educated at the College of St. Thomas, on June 21, 1910. The couple lived in Minneapolis. In the early 1950s, they relocated to Baltimore, Maryland, where Rose died on February 25, 1956.

Rose's younger sisters, Winifred B. McDermott (born March 1891) and Florence B. McDermott (born March 1895) were also Derham Hall graduates (in 1911 and 1912, respectively).

Rose's grandparents were born in Ireland. Her parents were second-generation Irish-American. According to his obituary in the Star Tribune on October 19, 1929, Dominick McDermott was "A territorial pioneer... [He] came to Minnesota from Kentucky by steamboat and covered wagon and settled at Credit River, Scott county, in 1856. He was a close personal friend of the late Archbishop John Ireland and came to Clontarf as the archbishop's colonization agent in 1875. From then until a few years ago he engaged in the general merchandise business [in Clontarf]." According to his great granddaughter Rosemary Foley, Dominick kept a general store, was a farmer, and served as postmaster of Clontarf.

[Sources: Ancestry.com and Newspapers.com, accessed on May 7, 2025]