1962–2026
After an eight-year battle with the scourge that is dementia, Mary Ann Clevenger, beloved wife, mother, Mimi, sister, aunt, and selfless friend, passed away on October 6, 2026, to join her beloved son and her merciful Savior in Heaven. She was 64 years old.
Mary Ann was the daughter of the late Mary Donafrio (Loader) and Donald Donafrio of New Castle, Pennsylvania, and the protective big sister of the late Rose Marie Donafrio, Carla Bush, widow of the late Barry Bush, and Christine (Brandon) Johnson, both of New Castle, Pennsylvania, and Donald (Melissa) Donafrio of Virginia Beach, Virginia.
A 1980 graduate of Shenango High School, Mary Ann was also the recipient of the Miss Junior Achievement Award—an honor that, in retrospect, seems perfectly suited to a young woman whose quiet, subtle inner and outer beauty was difficult to adequately put into words.
Her siblings, their spouses, and her many nieces and nephews mourn the loss of their beloved Mary Ann—a woman who loved effortlessly and lived so much of her life in service to others that she leaves behind an example worthy of emulation.
On May 15, 1982, Mary Ann married the love of her life, Lloyd Clevenger, a graduate of Springfield Local High School in Ohio and Fairmont State College in West Virginia.
The two could not have appeared more different.
Lloyd was bold, assertive, imposing, proud, and pronounced. Mary Ann was gentle, unassuming, quietly selfless, unsung, and altruistic.
And somehow, they fit.
For 44 years, their marriage endured countless military deployments, duty stations, moves, celebrations, hardships, children, grandchildren, unimaginable loss, and ultimately illness. Through Lloyd’s career in the United States Army, the two saw the world together, served this country in their own respective ways, and built a family along the way.
Mary Ann carried two titles for which there are no medals, ranks, or uniforms: Soldier’s wife and mother of a Soldier—two of the hardest jobs in the Army. She stood faithfully beside her husband throughout his military career and later watched with both pride and a mother’s inevitable worry as her son, Lloyd Brandon, followed in his father’s footsteps and served his country in the United States Army.
Through it all, Mary Ann and Lloyd became an enduring example of what it truly means to live the vows spoken on a wedding day: To have and to hold, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.
In March 1983, Mary Ann welcomed her eldest child and only daughter, Amanda Marie Clevenger of Havelock, North Carolina.
Amanda resembled her mother in features, although there was never much doubt that her personality and ferocity belonged to her father. Mary Ann inspired in her daughter a lifelong love of reading and writing. She told Amanda she could become anything she dreamed of becoming. She was the constant face in the stands, chauffeuring her from one sport to another, quietly smiling at her daughter’s wild stories and seemingly living just a little vicariously through a child far more outspoken and audacious than herself.
With age, Amanda would come to understand something she could not fully appreciate as a child: there is tremendous strength in a person who does not need to announce it.
Behind Mary Ann’s soft voice and unobtrusive nature was a remarkable strength, a deep capacity for love, and a quiet resilience her daughter would only grow to admire more with time.
On Halloween 1984, Mary Ann gave birth to her baby boy, Lloyd Brandon “Duke” Clevenger.
Lloyd Brandon may have physically resembled his namesake father, but he possessed the pure and gentle heart of his mother.
Mary Ann taught her son kindness, selflessness, humor, perseverance, and how to love people unconditionally. As she had with his sister, she was a constant presence on the sidelines and in the stands. Somehow, Mary Ann managed to support two extremely athletic children through season after season, year after year, never needing recognition for the sacrifices required to make it all happen.
In March 2019, Lloyd Brandon passed away at only 34 years old.
Those who loved Mary Ann could see that something changed after the loss of her baby boy. Her battle with dementia seemed to deepen in the years that followed, almost as though two souls so gentle and so deeply connected were never meant to endure a world without one another.
And so, amid the profound sadness of losing Mary Ann, her family finds comfort imagining what happened when she finally reached Heaven: confusion gone, pain gone, memory restored—and Lloyd Brandon waiting for his momma with that unmistakable Cheshire grin.
One can only imagine the embrace.
On April 5, 2006, Mary Ann received the title she may have treasured most of all: Mimi.
Her granddaughter, Ava Marie Shaw, entered the world 16 weeks premature, weighing only one pound.
Anyone who knew Mary Ann knew that nurturing children seemed to come as naturally to her as breathing. But that love shone perhaps brightest when she was with Ava.
Weekend visits somehow stretched into the middle of the week. Mary Ann spoiled her granddaughter without apology, treasured every moment with her, and loved her with every fiber of her being. She taught Ava to embrace exactly who she is and never forget that, in her Mimi’s eyes, she was the most perfect and beautiful creation imaginable.
Mary Ann loved her family. She loved her friends. She remained close to her mother and siblings for as long as her illness allowed. She was a devoted and selfless wife, a loving sister and aunt, and, to those blessed enough to call her theirs, simply the best Mama and Mimi this world could have given them.
Dementia took things from Mary Ann slowly and cruelly. It stole memories, independence, familiarity, and eventually pieces of a life she had spent decades building for everyone around her.
But it could never erase what Mary Ann had already given away so freely.
Her kindness remains.
Her children carry it.
Her granddaughter carries it.
Her family carries it.
And the countless people who were fortunate enough to experience the quiet warmth of Mary Ann Clevenger carry a piece of it, too.
She deserved so much better than dementia.
Today, however, she is free from its suffering and confusion. Her family takes comfort believing that the woman who spent her life caring for everyone else is finally at rest, whole again, and joyfully reunited with the precious son she missed for seven long years.
We were blessed simply to have known someone so pure of heart.
And now we mourn a quiet, beautiful soul who sometimes seemed almost too kind for this world.
Mary Ann is survived by her husband of 44 years, Lloyd Clevenger; daughter, Amanda Clevenger; granddaughter, Ava Shaw; and numerous brothers- and sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, extended family members, and friends who loved her dearly and who, alongside her immediate family, walked the difficult road of dementia with her.
She was preceded in death by her beloved son, Lloyd Brandon “Duke” Clevenger; sister, Rose Marie Donafrio; brother-in-law, Barry Bush; mother, Mary Donafrio; father, Donald Donafrio; and mother- and father-in-law, Mildred and Lloyd Clevenger of New Middletown, Ohio.
Two memorial services celebrating Mary Ann’s life will be held.
A North Carolina service will take place through Adcock Funeral Home in Spring Lake, followed by a second celebration of life in New Castle, Pennsylvania, allowing the family and lifelong friends who loved Mary Ann in both places she called home to gather in her memory.
Dates, times, locations, visitation information, and additional arrangements will be announced by the family later this month.
Condolences and memories of Mary Ann may be shared through Adcock Funeral Home: https://adcockfuneralandcrematory.com/obituaries/mary-ann-clevenger
Mary Ann spent her life quietly loving others. May we honor her by loving one another a little more loudly in her absence.