Dorothy (McGrath) Higgins, grandmother, mother, wife and daughter, died on November 6, 2017. She was 78.
Born on December 4, 1938, she was raised by her parents, Helen and Joseph McGrath, in the Midwood Section of Brooklyn. She graduated from Catherine McAuley High School and went to work for Stroock, Stroock & Lavan, a law firm in New York City. She realized that this was not her calling and went to Brooklyn College to study nursing and become a registered nurse.
While working at Flower Fifth Avenue Hospital, she met Thomas P. Higgins, and they married on June 3, 1967.
They had three children: Deirdre, Patrick and Laura, and in 1980 they built their home and moved to Southampton to raise their family. While raising her children, she became a successful real estate broker at Corcoran Group where she worked until 2003. In 2003, she became very ill and experienced many challenges that few experience in their lifetime, survivors said. During this time, she became a role model to all who met her because despite all, she faced life with happiness, kindness and generosity. She showed all who knew her, and many who did not, the power of a person’s will to survive and thrive in the most difficult of circumstances, survivors said.
She loved tennis, her dogs and was always up for any spontaneous adventure or road trip, even with no hotel reservations or tickets; she believed things would work out and they did.
Survivors said she loved her friends and family, particularly her six grandchildren, Tommy, Finn, Connor, Owen, Maggie and Declan.
Visiting was November 9 and 10 at the R. J. O’Shea Funeral Home in Hampton Bays. A funeral Mass took place on November 11 at the Basilica of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in Southampton. Burial followed at the church cemetery.
on Nov 9, 2017