Obituary

It is with deep sorrow and much love that the family of Rose Mary (Cooley)
Keys, beloved mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, announces her
passing peacefully on July 21, 2025, at Country Club Rehab and Healthcare
Center at the age of 98 years. Born on July 9, 1927, in Kansas City, Missouri,
to Rose Ellen (Rogers) Cooley (an original Orphan Train rider) and Marion
Lee Cooley, Sr., Rose Mary lived her life with kindness, grace, quiet strength,
and an unwavering devotion to her family.
In her youth Rose Mary trained at the Conservatory of Music in dance, and
after graduating from Northeast High School in 1944, she was selected as a
dance team member for TWA, performing for veterans in hospitals across the
Midwest. Later, she attended secretarial school and worked as a legal
secretary for various law firms in the Kansas City area. As a stay-at-home
mother, she transcribed court reporter notes.
On July 4, 1947, she married her soulmate, Robert Hugh Keys, a detective on
the Kansas City Police Department. Rose Mary was proud to be a longstanding
member of the surviving spouses of the KCPD.
For many years Rose Mary and Bob, members of the Good Sam RV Club,
traveled in their mobile home. Rose Mary enjoyed traveling in the United
States and abroad.
Rose Mary was also a professional cake decorator, a talented seamstress, and
an avid bridge and domino player, but her greatest joy came from being a
homemaker. She was the heart of our family, the keeper of our traditions.
Even after macular degeneration took her eyesight in 2012, her strength and
determination taught us to endure. Her wisdom and spirit will never be
forgotten.
Rose Mary was preceded in death by her parents; brother, Marion Lee
Cooley, Jr.; husband; and daughter, Sheri Wussow. She is survived by her
daughter, Cindy (Mike) Utz; three grandsons, Travis Callahan, Jacobe
(Brynn) Callahan, and Clint (Angela) Utz; one granddaughter, Hayley Utz;
and eleven great-grandchildren, Lake Callahan, Matilda, Frederick, Robert,
Elizabeth, and Samuel Callahan, Cameran, Calvin, and Colin Utz, Norah and
Emelia Botkins.
Her life will be celebrated on July 24, 2025, at Langsford Funeral Home in
Lee’s Summit at 1:00 P.M. Burial will follow at Floral Hills East.
In lieu of flowers, we invite you to honor her memory by performing a simple
act of kindness for another.