Calling Hours: 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 pm, Friday, February 7th, 2014
Mass: 11:00 am, Saturday, February 8th, St. Joseph’s Church, Bronxville, NY
Rose O’Donnell Cunningham of Yonkers, NY entered eternal life peacefully on February 5, 2014 at the grand old age of 96 years old.
Born in Drumkeerin, County Leitrim, Ireland, on March 20, 1917 to Patrick and Elizabeth (nee Saunders), the fifth child in a family of eleven children, Michael, Thomas, Mary, Neal, Patrick, Kathleen, Matty, John James, Kevin, and Nan, as a young girl of sixteen years old, in 1933, she emigrated to London, Ontario, Canada when the American borders were closed to immigration during the Great Depression.
She lived for seven years with family relatives, including the Johnson family with whom she remained close all her life, attended high school and later emigrated to New York in 1940 to join her two older siblings, Tommy and Mary. Her devotion to them all her life can never be overstated.
In the 1940s, she worked as a waitress at the popular New York City chain, Schraffts Restaurant. In 1947, she returned to Ireland for her first visit home with her brother Tommy and encouraged others in her family to emigrate to New York. Around this time, she met Irish bandleader, Joe Cunningham after she asked him to play a “Stack of Barley”.
An unlikely, if mythical, chance meeting occurred soon after at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in New York City, when she turned around asking for money for the collection, thinking her brother John James was sitting behind her. Instead, to her embarrassment, she was asking this bandleader Joe Cunningham, who had moved into the pew behind her, for money. A brief courtship led to a 64 year marriage of love and devotion where he was quick to add through the years that he was always giving her money ever since.
Rose is survived by four of her children and their spouses Doctor Catherine and Michael Einersen of Mount Vernon, NY, Joseph, Jr. and Debbie of Danbury, CT, James and Joan of Croton-on-Hudson, NY, and Deacon John and Elaine of Pearl River, NY. She is predeceased by her waiting husband Joseph and their loving daughter, Mary Cunningham Einersen who was married to their son-in-law, Peter Einersen.
‘Grandma’, another word for total love and devotion, was the proud grandmother of fourteen grandchildren, Brian and Kieran Einersen. Kerry and her husband John Solomon, Peter and Jennifer Einersen, Mary Rose and her husband Eric Luft, Joseph, III, Sean, and Christopher, Jim and Kristen Cunningham, Siobhan and her husband Ryan McCormack, Troy and Caitlin Cunningham and two great-grandchildren, Liam Luft and Ciaran McCormack.
Beloved ‘Aunt Rose’ is also survived by many loving nieces and nephews in the U.S. and Ireland where she made many trips for wakes and weddings. She is survived also by her sister-in-law and devoted friend in all things O’Donnell, Sheila O’Donnell.
In her life, Rose returned to the workforce in 1970, employed by Chase Manhattan Bank on Wall Street, and retired in 1983 to become a full-time “Grandma” for all her grandchildren. A Yonkers resident for 30 years, she was admitted to St. Patrick’s Home in the North Bronx in 2009, due to her failing memory. There, despite her increasing memory lapses, she impressed the dedicated staff with her sociability and genuine appreciation for their compassionate nursing care.
In the past twelve years, her memory faded to darkness, but her innate love and graciousness never did. Some things cannot be taken from a person, and that is their essence, their spirit, and their inherent goodness and love.
Our mom proved that every day of her life!
Her bereaved family will receive visitors at Fred H. & Son McGrath’s Funeral Home, 20 Cedar Street, Bronxville, NY on Friday, February 7, 2014 from 3-5 and 7-9 PM.
A Mass of the Christian Burial will be offered at St. Joseph’s Church, 15 Cedar Street, Bronxville, NY on Saturday, February 8, 2014 at 11 am.
Interment to follow at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Valhalla, NY.
“O’Donnell abu!”
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