Mary Jane Brennan McAfee Murphy, 88, daughter of Thomas Paul Brennan and Thelma Susan Welsh, was born in Camden, New Jersey, on October 28, 1932, and was raised in Haddonfield, New Jersey. She graduated Haddonfield High School in 1951 and attended nursing school at Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She married John McAfee, Sr. March 28, 1953, and resided in New Jersey until 1970. She also lived in Richmond, Virginia for 28 years, and Virginia Beach, Virginia for 23 years. She passed away due to complications from glioblastoma late in the evening on July 2, 2021, in Virginia Beach, Virginia with her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren by her side.

Mary Jane lived a long and full life, and enjoyed volunteering for many organizations including Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts of America, Brookfield Civic Association, Trinity Lutheran Church, St. Mary’s Hospice, St. Michael’s Lutheran Church, Marine Science Museum, and a host of political campaigns.

She and her husband Jack were married 49 years, working together in the family businesses they created, Export International Corporation and American Gulf International, where she managed the books and was the social secretary, entertaining clients from around the world. She and Jack traveled the globe, from many countries in the Middle East and Europe to their annual treks to New England to see the fall foliage, and Key West every winter. She was an avid reader and would spend hours getting lost in her favorite books. She was fiercely independent, living on her own for 20 years after Jack passed, and was constantly attending social events with her friends, always showing up fashionably late and dressed to the nines in her speedy blue Audi that she adored.

Mary Jane had a sharp mind and a quick wit, and surrounded herself with many memories of her family history, trinkets from travels, and quotes from the thousands of books she read throughout her life. Among her papers were the following quotes:

“May there be abundant peace from heaven, and a good life for us…”

“Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known.”

She is survived by her three children, John McAfee, Jr. (Lynne) of Richmond, Thomas Paul McAfee, Sr. (Jackie) of Virginia Beach, and Mary Heather McAfee of Richmond; eight grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren, and her beloved sister, Suzanne Morris, brother-in-law, Fran, and nieces Susanna, Beth Anne, and Mimi, of Haddonfield, New Jersey.

The church service will be held at St. Michael’s Lutheran Church, 2208 Princess Anne Road, Virginia Beach, Virginia on Sunday July 18, 2021 at 1:30 p.m. She will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the American Cancer Society in her honor.