Cecilia R. Rarrick, 91

Cecilia Roxbury Rarrick died on July 1 at her house in East Hampton. She was 91 and had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease several years ago. Mrs. Rarrick was under the care of East End Hospice.

She was born in Glendale, Queens, on July 24, 1926, one of three daughters of the former Bridget Sullivan and James McCaffrey. She grew up there and put herself through nursing school in Harlem, earning a degree as a licensed practical nurse. Mrs. Rarrick worked in Queens at Elmhurst General Hospital, bringing up her three children as a single mother after her first husband, Roland Roxbury, who was in the Merchant Marine, sustained a brain injury and had to be hospitalized. The marriage ended in divorce.

The family lived for five years in Harrisburg, Pa., before moving, in 1980, with Robert Rarrick, her second husband, to Montauk. He worked as a chef at several Montauk restaurants and Mrs. Rarrick worked as a nurse at Southampton Hospital and for private clients. They eventually divorced.

Both her former husbands died before her, as did one sister. Another sister, Patricia O’Kane of Jupiter, Fla., survives, as do her three children, Susanne Roxbury and Cathy Roxbury of Montauk and James Roxbury of Harrisburg, Pa., and Montauk, and a granddaughter. Another granddaughter, Taryn Enck, died at 25 last year of a rare genetic disease, hereditary angioedema. Her granddaughter Megan Enck Hurley of Amagansett followed in her footsteps and became a nurse herself.

The Rev. Tom Murray of St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church in Montauk officiated at a funeral Mass on July 7. Burial followed at Fort Hill Cemetery, Montauk.

Susanne Roxbury said her mother “made the best of everything and lived and loved her life right to the end. She was just really happy . . . she had a grace about her and a warm, welcoming heart.” Her mother, she said, “would give you the shirt off her back, but she was no fool.”

The family has suggested donations in memory of Taryn Enck for the HAEA Association, attention Christine Selva, P.O. Box 803, Conway, Mass. 01341.