Marilyn Jane Reed McCarthy, a longtime resident of Southold, passed away at Good Shepherd Hospice in Port Jefferson on November 16, 2015. She was 80 years old.
She was born in Brooklyn on February 8, 1935 to Adelaide (Wallace) and William E. Reed. The family moved to Jamaica Estates into their 1940s English Tudor home. Marilyn attended Immaculate Conception Grammar School and afterward, The Mary Louis Academy. She graduated from that high school with many honors in January 1953. Marilyn was an employee of the Long Island Press newspaper. She worked for Eastern Airlines and proudly got to have a dance with Eddie Rickenbacker, the owner of Eastern Airlines.
Marilyn met James R. McCarthy and married him on September 8, 1956. Their first child was Kathleen who was born on September 3, 1957. Son Daniel was born on August 12, 1959. For a few years, this family resided in Lake Ronkonkoma, and then moved back to Marilyn’s mother’s home in Jamaica Estates.
She worked at P.S. 178 in Hollis first as a school aide and then had a very rare opportunity of becoming a paraprofessional where she ran the Ben Franklin Associates, a printing class that Marilyn helped organize to assist students with publishing. That became something since P.S. 178 was garnished with many NYS awards because of the Ben Franklin Associates (and Marilyn’s guidelines). She attended Pace College and earned an associate’s degree.
Marilyn and James and son Daniel moved to the North Fork in 1988 and resided at Founders Village. She headed to the Riverhead Department of Labor and was immediately hired to begin employment in the unemployment office, where she was employed until 1993. Marilyn was a welcome addition on the Founders Village Grapevine publication.
She loved reading, movies, and theater. As a matter of fact, Marilyn and James became members of the Mattituck North Fork Community Theatre to honor their actor son Daniel.
Predeceased by her husband James on July 28, 1993, Marilyn is survived by her daughter Kathleen McCarthy (Mooney) and her husband, Brian Mooney, who live in Albany; son Daniel of Southold; her sister Barbara and husband Raymond McDonald and sons Kevin and Michael and their wives and children; brother-in-law Daniel F. McCarthy and family in Ewing, New Jersey; many nieces and nephews; and numerous friends.
Memorial donations may be made to Good Shepherd Hospice, 200 Belle Terre Rd., Port Jefferson, NY 11776 or Southold Free Library, P.O. Box 697, Southold, NY 11971, or Southold Historical Society, P.O. Box 1, Southold, NY 11971.
