Obituary of Mary F Quinn

Mary F. Quinn – Obituary Long-time New Vernon Resident Was Active in Community Affairs Mary F. Quinn, 90, of Tinton Falls, died Saturday, Oct. 15, in Neptune after a brief illness. She had been a long-time resident of New Vernon, where she was active in many community organizations, before moving to the retirement community of Seabrook Village in Tinton Falls in 2004. In New Vernon, she was active in Christ the King parish, the Harding Township Civic Association, the New Vernon Garden Club, as a volunteer at the Harding Township Library and a township representative on the Morris County Republican Committee. She was known for her candor, sharp sense of humor, colorful stories about growing up in New York City, empathy for others, courage in the face of adversity and selfless devotion to family and friends. After graduating from Cathedral High School in the Bronx in 1943, she spent more than a decade working in secretarial and administrative positions in New York City while also taking evening classes at Columbia University. She worked at the Teachers College at Columbia and Vick Chemical Company before joining the Standard Oil Company in 1947 in the Employee Relations Department. She stayed with Standard Oil until 1954 when she married William J. Quinn, a lawyer with Merck & Co., and moved to New Jersey. They lived in New Providence and Summit before moving to New Vernon in 1969. In 1974, she drew on her New York City background to arrange a visit to Christ the King Church in New Vernon by Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the well-known preacher whose television programs were widely popular during the 1950s and 1960s. Archbishop Sheen preached to a large crowd at Christ the King and the event was well-remembered in the community for many years. In moving to the shore in 2004, she was returning to her roots as she had spent her earliest years in Manasquan where she was born in her parents' home on South Street as the youngest of five children. At the time, her father, David Fitzgerald, operated a fruit and produce store on Main Street in Manasquan. But in 1932, faced with depressed economic conditions and competition from an A&P supermarket that had opened in town, he had to close his store. He moved to New York City where he found work as a bus driver. Mary, her three sisters and brother and her mother then moved to Manhattan to join him and the family lived in an apartment on the Upper West Side. She is survived by her sons William of Hoboken and Peter of Philadelphia, daughter Maryann, of Manhattan, son John and daughter-in-law Marguerite of Middletown, Rhode Island. She is also survived by her grandchildren: Michael, Kathleen and Stephen Quinn of Middletown; nieces Mary Lou Hilscher of Spring Lake Heights, Mary Alice Horan of Manhattan, Maureen Toro of Rochelle Park and Linda Fitzgerald of Paramus; and nephews Joseph Foster of Brielle, John and David Horan of Sea Girt, Thomas Horan of Hoboken, Timothy Gearity of Rutherford and Brian Gearity of Reading, Pennsylvania. She was predeceased by her husband, William, her sisters Helen Foster, Ann Gearity, Julia Horan, her brother David Fitzgerald, and her parents, David and Mary Fitzgerald. Her family is grateful for the compassionate care she received in recent years from Sharon Gilbert of Jersey City, her aide, and, at the end of her life, at Jersey Shore University Medical Center. Visitation will be held from 4 to 7 pm on Thursday, Oct. 20, at the Gallaway & Crane Funeral Home, 101 South Finley Avenue in Basking Ridge. A funeral mass will be celebrated at Christ the King Church in New Vernon at 10 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 21, followed by interment at the New Vernon Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory to the American Macular Degeneration Foundation, macular.org, would be appreciated.