A native of Ireland whose family said she will “always be remembered for her unconditional love and care of others,” Kitty O’Neill of Wainscott and Woodside, Queens, died on Nov. 27 at the Lahey Hospital and Medical Center Burlington, Mass. She was 85 and had been ill for six days.
Mrs. O’Neill immigrated on her own to the United States in 1955 at the age of 15, and enjoyed traveling back to Ireland throughout her adult life to visit family, friends, and neighbors.
After her arrival in her new country, she took a job as a nanny for the Block family of Manhattan and the Hamptons, a family who later became “wonderful friends” after her child care services were no longer needed. Mrs. O’Neill later took a job at the Educational Records Bureau, a nonprofit organization, where she assisted families with their children’s educational needs and school selections, her family wrote.
She was a “cherished member” of the Wainscott Sewing Society, the 155-year-old organization wrote on Facebook. In all she did, Mrs. O’Neill kept a caring and watchful eye on the Wainscott community, her family said, even calling East Hampton Town to report potholes on local streets from time to time.
She was born Kathryn Smith on Feb. 9, 1939, in Ballyjamesduff, County Cavan, Ireland, the eldest of nine children of Patrick and Delia Smith. She was raised on the family farm in Killavalley and attended school through the eighth grade.
She met Tommy O’Neill, who had also grown up on a farm in a different county in Ireland, at a friend’s wedding in New York City. They married in 1963 and built a house in Wainscott in the early 1970s. “While it was their sanctuary, Kitty missed the city life and they subsequently bought an apartment in Woodside, Queens, where they enjoyed the best of both worlds,” her family wrote.
“Once you met Kitty, she became a friend for life,” her family wrote. “She was one-of-a-kind. She had an amazing way about herself, a gentle touch, [and was] a devoted wife, mother, grandmother, aunt, cousin, and friend.”
Her husband, Tommy, her daughter, Patricia O’Neill-Hart, and five siblings, Bartley, Patsy, Bridie, Susie, and Eileen, died before her.
Mrs. O’Neill leaves a son, Peter O’Neill, and his wife, Jessica, of Windham, N.H., and four granddaughters, Elizabeth, Julia, Hannah, and Deliah. She also leaves a sister, Nancy Gaffney of Kilnaleck, Ireland, and two brothers, Seamus Smith of Pearl River, N.Y., and Matty Smith of Nanuet, N.Y.; two brothers-in-law, Frank Sutton and Patsy Gaffney; a sister-in-law, Patricia Smith, a son-in-law, Daniel Hart, and “many loving cousins, nieces, and nephews both in Ireland and the United States,” her family wrote.
A funeral Mass will be said on Saturday, Dec. 14, at 1 p.m. at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton, officiated by the Rev. Ryan Creamer. Burial of her ashes will follow at the Wainscott Cemetery, 51 Main Street in the hamlet.
Memorial donations have been suggested to the Nassau/Suffolk Autism Society of America, online at nsasa.org, or the Alzheimer’s Association, at alz.org. Condolences can be shared online at carrierfuneralhome.com.
