Continuing now with our “Endless Waves” series,
meet Marjorie Ann (O’Grady) Feeney, Class of 1943.
This is her Sayville High senior photo.
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Continuing now with our “Endless Waves” series,
meet Marjorie Ann (O’Grady) Feeney, Class of 1943.
This is her Sayville High senior photo.
Marge in her early teens.
One of Marjorie’s favorite activities throughout her grammar and high school years was her dance lessons. Performances of her dance class were held regularly.
For these events, her mother, Anna, made elegant costumes. Marge models two of those costumes in 1941.
Marjorie (on the right) with Laurel Collins, also a member of the Class of 1943 and a Collins Avenue neighbor, at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery in April 1941.
This photo, taken in 1940, shows Marge with her cousin Bobby Munkelwitz, also a member of the Class of 1943.
Both Marjorie and her future husband, Tom Feeney, graduated from New York State College for Teachers (now known as The State University of New York at Albany) in 1947.
Tom began college in 1939, was drafted in 1942, and returned to college in 1946, once World War II ended. Marjorie began college in September 1943. She and Tom met in 1946. This graduation photo shows Marge, along with her parents, Anna and Paul, in June 1947.
Six months after their college graduation, Marge and Tom married on December 21, 1947, in Saint Lawrence Church in Sayville.
Here is Marge in her wedding dress.
After their marriage, they lived in Sayville. Marge taught English at East Islip High School, while Tom taught social studies at Bellport High School.
Eventually, Tom became the principal of Bellport High.
Marge and Tom always enjoyed the lakes and woods of upstate New York and in Connecticut. Photo left is Marge at Candlewood Lake, Connecticut, where Tom’s parents had a home.
Lake George was another favorite vacation spot of theirs that they visited often. Photo right was on a 1982 trip.
Marge and Tom had four children: Paula, Maura, Steve, and Anne. All are college graduates, some with advanced degrees.
Paula is a water conservationist; Maura, a library archivist; Steve, an engineer; and Anne, a high school math teacher.
On the right are the three oldest children Maura, Steve, and Paula with their grandparents, Anna and Paul O’Grady.
Below are some photos of them growing up.
Steve, Paula, and Maura with Marge in 1963, on an apple picking trip in Yorktown, New York.
Left: Maura with little sister Anne, Marge and Tom’s youngest child, in 1965.
Right: Paula, Anne and Marge in Upstate New York, in 1967.
Marge and Anne biking on the boardwalk in Ocean City, Maryland, 1972.
The family has always loved Fire Island. Marge’s aunts, Camilla Munkelwitz and Bertha Stryker, began, in 1921, renting and then building homes at Cherry Grove. Marge’s parents waited.
When plans for the development of Fire Island Pines, the area to the west of Cherry Grove, began in 1952, Marge’s parents, Anna and Paul O’Grady, purchased one of the 122 lots being offered for sale.
Their house, located on Midway Walk, was completed in 1954. Here are several photos of their home. Notice the deer in the first photo. The family has enjoyed the house for almost 70 years.
The fourth picture is Marge with her three youngest children, Maura, Paula, and Steve at the Pines in 1955.
The fifth picture is a luncheon party at “Patcha Pines”, the name of the home in the Pines.
Marjorie and Tom Feeney in 1970.
In 1972, Marge and Tom’s oldest daughter, Paula, married Jim Staples in a backyard wedding at the Staples home in Bellport.
To the right are the bride and groom, Paula and Jim, their best man, Philip Beale, and the maid of honor, Maura Feeney.
The cutting of the wedding cake.
Tom Feeney offering a toast to the bride and groom.
The bride with her father on the left and her father-in-law, George Staples, on the right.
Members of the Feeney and Staples families.
Marge and Anne on a college scouting trip in 1981.
Steve Feeney and Sue on their wedding day in Akron, Ohio in 1982.
Marge in 1985.
The Feeney’s at their home in Bellport in 1991. From left to right: Anne, Tom, Paula, Steve, Maura, and Marge.
Anne, Maura, Paula, and Steve with Steve’s daughter Brenna, in 1992.
After Tom retired from high school administration, he and Marge regularly wintered in Florida on Anna Maria Island. Their favorite eatery was the Sandbar Restaurant. The restaurant (right), located directly on the Gulf, was famous for its nightly contest for diners to guess the exact time the sun would set.
The Feeney family has many happy memories of time spent at the restaurant and on Anna Maria Island.
While in Florida, Marge and Tom occasionally were visited by their children and grandchildren.
Photographed in March 1993, are Steve’s son Coleman, Paula’s oldest son, Luke (holding Brenna) and her youngest son JT.
Photo left are Paula’s son JT (Jim Thomas), Steve’s daughter Brenna, Maura, and Paula.
Photo right are Tom, his son Steve and his wife Sue, and two of their children, Coleman and Brenna.
On November 21, 1992, Marge and Tom’s youngest child, Anne, married David Gassner in the Methodist Church of Bellport, Long Island.
Left-top; Steve Feeney with his aunt, Lillian Lussier
Right-top; Parents of the bride, Marge and Tom Feeney, dancing.
Left-bottom; Bride and groom with the Feeney family
Center: Anne and David walking down the aisle after the marriage ceremony.
Members of the Feeney family in Ohio in 1997. In the back row are Steve’s son Coleman, Paula’s son Luke Staples, Sue Feeney, Steve Feeney, Paula Feeney Staples, and her husband, Jim Staples.
In the front row are Tom Feeney, Maura Feeney, Steve’s daughter Brenna, Marge Feeney, and Steve’s son, Evan.
Another spot on Fire Island that has been a wonderful place of family enjoyment has been Ho Hum Beach. Here Anne and her daughter, Olivia, head across the Great South Bay from Bellport where the Feeney’s live, to Ho Hum Beach on Fire Island.
Ho Hum Beach has been a spot for swimming, clamming, fishing, and just enjoying the beach.
Here is David Gassner with his prize surf-casting catch at Ho Hum Beach on Fire Island in November 2019.
Anne and David Gassner’s home is a favorite locale for family gatherings. These photos are from family get-togethers and celebrations on November 13, 2017, Thanksgiving 2017, and June 30, 2018.
Left: Marge and her granddaughter, Olivia Gassner.
Right: Marge’s grandson, Tom Gassner
Left: Steve Feeney and his sister, Anne.
Right: Anne baking clams at the June 2018 clambake.
Left: Anne making dinner preparations.
Right: Anne with her in-laws, Theresa and Marcia.
Left: Marge’s daughter, Paula, and her grandson JT.
Right: Jim and Paula Staples
Left: Marge’s grandchildren, Brenna and Darren Feeney, at their home in Ohio, Thanksgiving 2019.
Right: Thanksgiving dinner at the Staples’ family home in Florida, 2019.
A favorite spot to eat coming home from Fire Island Pines is the Cull House on River Road in Sayville. Marge is waiting for dinner in September 2017.
Marge on left in August 2018. Photo right is Marge and Anne celebrating Marge’s 93rd birthday in April 2019 at Trumpets.
Marge celebrating her 94th birthday, while observing the. “Stay-at-Home” order of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sadly, Marjorie Ann (O’Grady) Feeney left on March 29, 2023.
Born April 26, 1926. Died March 29, 2023
Click here to read a beautiful tribute by her cousin Dr. Virginia Lee Lussier, Class of 1959.
Below are related family members also featured in our “Endless Waves” series, who are Sayville High School graduates .
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