Mary M. Werner

Retired State Supreme Court Justice and Author Mary Werner dies at 91

New York State Supreme Court Justice (retired) Mary Margaret Phelan Werner, age 91, died on April 30, 2025. 

Mary was born in Bayridge, Brooklyn on June 1, 1933, to the late Edward L. Phelan and Alice Powers Phelan. Besides her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband of 57 years Dr. Lawrence Werner, her sister, Joan Phelan McCormack, her daughter-in-law, Leslie L. Werner, and son-in-law, Paul Molloy. 

She is survived by her children: Larry (Tamara Branson) Werner of Bellport, Kevin (Alice) Werner of Stony Brook, Steven (Anne) Werner of Apex, NC, John (Debbie) Werner of Weatherford, TX, Maryann (Russ) Hartwick of Athens, OH, Paul (Susan Abeles) Werner of Roslyn Harbor, and Margaret Molloy, Warren, RI. She is also survived by 18 grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren, her brother Br. Edward Phelan, so many wonderful nieces and nephews and godchildren, and special friends Robin Cramer, Betty and Nick Magri, and Livia Parrella. She would want all to know of her deep love of the McCormack children, her sister’s children, who she considered as her own. 

Mary attended St. Saviour’s High School in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and went on to St. John’s University Teachers’ College (where she met her husband). She left school to marry the love of her life in March of 1955, while he was still attending Cornell Medical School. When her husband finished medical school and became an Air Force Captain, they were shipped out to the Philippine Islands for his first duty with their three small children. After his years of service, and another child, they settled in Smithtown, NY, where he started his medical practice, and they welcomed 3 more children.   

They had the blessing of choosing Dogwood Drive as their new neighborhood only to discover the best neighbors and lifelong friends in the Kinneys, the Magris and the Parrellas. In short order they added the Culhanes, the Priebes and the O’Briens to this amazing family of friends. The support of these families over the remainder of her life allowed all that followed to happen. 

Mary “enjoyed” all the challenges of raising 7 children as (what was then called) a housewife. After the children had reached a level of independence, Mary went back to school earning her undergraduate degree from Dowling College and then her law degree from St. John’s Law School. 

She worked as an Assistant District Attorney in the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office working cases first in the District Court Bureau, Grand Jury Bureau, Rackets Bureau, and finally the Family Crime Bureau. She eventually became the Family Crime Bureau Chief. After 14 years in the District Attorney’s Office, she was appointed then elected to the New York State Supreme Court as a judge. She ended her distinguished career as the Administrative Judge of the Suffolk County Courts. 

Mary was always proud of her children and their accomplishments (and would happily tell you all about them), but she was also proud of several things that she helped to create during her time in the District Attorney’s office. Mary opened the Children’s Room while she was Chief of the Family Crime Bureau. This was a room designed to help put children at ease while their 
testimony was taken, testimony that was often painful and heartbreaking (to tell and to hear). In 1990, Mary was instrumental in creating what is known as The Little Grey Book in memory of April LaSalata, who was killed by her ex-husband in January 1989. This book, which is still in use today, is a book that was designed to fit in a purse or pocket and look like an unassuming address book, but is actually a book full of resources to help those people (mostly women) who feel trapped in an abusive relationship. Of this, she was most proud. 

Mary received many honors and awards for her work with abused women and children, culminating with being named a “Visionary Woman of Justice” in 2019 by Long Island’s top Bar Associations.  Mary has sat on the Boards of numerous organizations, including the Bar Association of Suffolk County, the Suffolk County Women’s Bar Association, the ENERGEIA Partnership, and ERASE Racism, Cleary School for the Deaf and St. John’s Law School Alumni Association. She was a founder and served as President of the Suffolk County Women’s Bar Association.   

In 2006, Mary retired from the bench and became an active member of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Stony Brook University where she took a Memoir Writing Class. Her published work, Kraminson Days: From White Gloves to Black Robes and Beyond, is a result of the memoirs written in this class and subsequent classes, and is still available for purchase on Amazon. 

Mary enjoyed keeping up with her 7 children and their spouses, 18 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren, spending time with some of the best friends anyone could ever have, and reading all the great works of other authors.   

Visitation will be held at St. James Funeral Home (829 Middle Country Road, Route 25, St. James) on May 8th from 7-9-pm and May 9th from 2-4 and 7-9. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at: St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church (280 East Main Street, Smithtown, NY) on May 10th at 9 AM with burial to follow at St. Patrick’s Cemetery, Smithtown. In lieu of flowers, donations may be mailed to the Lasallian Community of Bedford Park, 2850 Marion Avenue, Bronx, New York 10458. This religious community of men and women serve the needs of poor people in the Bronx.

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