SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — Mary Hennessy, the owner and founder of Mary’s Donuts in eastern San Diego County, has passed away at the age of 94.
Mary’s granddaughter Kelly will be taking over Mary’s Donuts after working under her wing for the last nine years.
Mary’s Donuts in Santee has been serving up fresh donuts 24-hours a day, for 41 years, a place locals have loved for decades. “She loved the regulars,” Kelly Hennessy, Mary’s granddaughter said.
“I live in Cardiff,” Kimberly Doerr said. “I drive all the way from there to here to get donuts from Mary’s and I’ve been coming here for maybe 10 years now,” Doerr said they are always fresh and worth the drive.
Mary Hennessy got her start in the donut business working at several Winchell’s locations in Easy County in the early ’80s. In 1984, she got a place of her own.
“Different era, but they wouldn’t sell to a woman back in 1984, so my grandfather was the one who did all the paperwork, and signed all the things, but the truth was it was her shop, it was always her shop and she ran this place everyday,” Kelly Hennessy said.
From 1984 to 2025, the store moved once, from around the corner on Mission Gorge, to now on Carlton Hills Boulevard where its been sine 2016.
In 2016, Kelly said a family friend, with Mary’s blessing, opened a sister store in Lakeside.
But Mary always picked the same seat in Santee.
“This is her spot, this is the spot she sat, and greeted customers and checked on us. If we were too busy she popped up to help,” Kelly said.
Before she passed over the weekend at 94-years-old, she was still working.
“She could see if something was wrong with a donut from a mile away,” Kelly laughed.
And now Kelly has the same eye, after working alongside her grandmother for the last 9 years.
“I was so blessed to get the opportunity to work with her. I grew up as a kid wanting to work here, wanting it to be the future I had, and I never thought that was a real possibility. My grandmother was 94 when she passed, I thought she would retire long ago,” Kelly said, but Mary never retired.
“She believed in hard work and staying working and exercise,” Kelly said. We asked what Mary’s favorite donut was…. “I hate to say it, Mary didn’t eat donuts, she was an ice cream girl,” Kelly laughed, and said she would always taste test the donuts to make sure they were good, but ice cream was her favorite, and her freezer was always stocked with it.
Along the walls of Mary’s Donuts are pictures Mary had taken over the 40 years, “She had an eye, she loved the regulars,” Kelly said.
There’s photos of Kelly as a young child, Mary’s brother who has passed away, and so many people that Mary has served donuts to over the last four decades.
“She let me back in the bake room, I would decorate donuts,” Kelly said, as a picture of a photo of her decorating donuts hangs on the wall.
“A lot of these people have passed and so to keep them on these walls forever means so much” Kelly said, walking through, looking at the photos she works near each day. “My grandfather passed in 2017. That was a really hard time for her and the shop brought her through.”
Now, Kelly is believing the shop can do the same for her as she takes over for her grandmother.
“She’s created a legacy that I’m really, really trying to live up to. I’m proud, and I know she believed in me, she told me she did,” Kelly said.
As for Kelly’s plans for Mary’s Donuts?
“Don’t fix what ain’t broke. This place has been doing an amazing job for almost 41 years now, I’ve been working here already for 9,” Kelly said, “Nothing here will change other than her presence, which is huge, but I hope to carry on her legacy, keep this place serving the community for years and years to come. We’ll be here forever if the community allows that.”
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