Maggie Burbank Dies At 85

Margaret Burbank

Margaret “Maggie” Burbank of Westhampton Beach died at home on Saturday, September 17. She was 85.

Born and raised in the Bronx, she was the daughter of Richard J. Barry and Wilma Grozinger Barry. After graduating from Ursuline Academy and Berkeley Business School, she worked as a secretary in Manhattan until 1947 when she married William Burbank of Boston, whom she met at the Soldiers & Sailors Club in Manhattan. They had three children during the next five years.

Widowed in 1959, Ms. Burbank raised her three daughters in the Bronx, imbuing them with a sense of self-reliance and optimism and the courage to follow their own dreams. In 1975 she relocated to Westhampton and began her wonderful, vibrant “second act,” as she called it. She worked as an office assistant at Mendenhall Fuel Company until 1995, then began her 15-year tenure as office administrator of the Greater Westhampton Chamber of Commerce.

Ms. Burbank was an avid reader and enjoyed her daily crossword puzzles and cooking shows. She loved butterflies and flowers, autumn and Christmas, Judy Garland and Nat King Cole, fried oysters and soft-shell crabs, and—most especially—the color yellow. While she was fiercely independent and relished living alone, she had a full and happy social life.

Known for her warm, bright smile, great sense of humor and spunky spirit, Ms. Burbank possessed a joie de vivre that kept her eternally youthful, her family said. She made many close and devoted friends over the years, including more than a few who were decades younger than she—a testament to her ageless attitude and fun-loving spirit.

She is survived by three daughters and their husbands, Christine and John Murray of East Quogue; Kathleen and Peter Quinn of Hastings-on-Hudson; and Patricia Burbank and Barry Gilmore of North Carolina; a sister, Eileen Dignon of Bohemia; and five grandchildren, Alison and Alex Murray, Genevieve and Daniel Quinn, and Hilary Gilmore.

Visitation was held at the Follett & Werner Funeral Home in Westhampton Beach on September 21. A funeral Mass will take place at 11 a.m. on Thursday, September 22, at Immaculate Conception Church on Quiogue.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to East End Hospice, P.O. Box 1048, Westhampton Beach, NY 11978.