Kathryn F. McGuirk
Kathryn Frances McGuirk, who worked for many years in the nurse’s office at East Hampton Middle School, died at home on the corner of Newtown Lane and McGuirk Street in East Hampton on Oct. 2 after a brief illness. She was 87.
Mrs. McGuirk’s roots here run deep, her family said, and she was a descendant of one of East Hampton’s founding families.
She was born Catherine Frances McGuire in Southampton on July, 5, 1931, to Edward Francis McGuire, who had grown up in Sag Harbor, and Nora Durkan, who came here from County Mayo, Ireland. She preferred the alternate spelling of her name, and went by that or simply Kate for most of her life.
Her grandparents were Alec and Phebe McGuire, who raised 19 children in East Hampton. She spent her childhood years in various East Hampton neighborhoods including Freetown, Cove Hollow Farm, and Below the Bridge.
During the 1938 Hurricane, she and her family took refuge in a garage apartment on an estate near Town Pond.
In eighth grade, she met her future husband, John Leo McGuirk Jr. They married on Jan. 16, 1954, at St. Philomena’s Church, which is now Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church, and spent 64 years together.
After graduating from East Hampton High School, she took a secretarial job at the Promised Land Fish Factory. She was also a telephone operator, and, from 1971 to 1993, she worked in the nurse’s office at the middle school.
She was a parishioner at Most Holy Trinity, a member of the Sweet Adelines women’s singing group, and a Girl Scout leader.
She is survived by her husband and five children, Susan McGuirk, John McGuirk III, and Barbara Tracey of East Hampton, Sandra Kalke of Mooresville, N.C., and East Hampton, and Mary Ellen Hess of Frisco, Tex. She also leaves a brother, Edward Francis McGuire Jr. of Melbourne, Fla., and 11 grandchildren, six great-grandchildren, and numerous cousins. A son, Patrick, died before her.
The family welcomed visitors at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton on Friday. A funeral Mass was said on Saturday at Most Holy Trinity Church, the Rev. Peter Garry officiating. Burial was at the church cemetery in East Hampton.
The family has suggested contributions to East End Hospice at P.O. Box 1048, Westhampton Beach 11978.