Maryann H. Power of Noyac died on November 29 at Southampton Hospital. She was 78.
Born in Manhattan, she spent her early years in The Bronx where she met her future husband, John J. Power. Two years after they were married, the couple moved to Little Neck, Queens, and Mrs. Power joined St. Anastasia Church in Douglaston.
Her husband was a New York City police officer and she worked as a teachers aide and audio visual consultant at the local school and in New York City public schools. She enjoyed gardening, walking, ice skating and especially reading, family members recalled this week. “She loved the library and instilled that love in her children and grandchildren,” her daughter Dianne Jamison said this week.
According to survivors, she was an avid swimmer ever since her youth when she spent her summers at the family’s summer home at Breezy Point in the Rockaways. She and her husband continued the tradition with their family until they sold the Breezy Point home in 1983 and bought a home in Noyac, where she fell in love with Long Beach.
Known lovingly as “Gran,” she took care of everybody, survivors said, and was everybody’s friend. “She was the ultimate matriarch,” Dianne said “If anyone needed advice, the first thing they’d think was ‘I’ll call Gran.’” Whenever someone would marry into the family, they were automatically adopted as her own.
In addition to her husband, John J. Power of Noyac, she is survived by two daughters and their husbands, Carolyn and John Kirrane of Sag Harbor and Dianne and Chris Jamison of North Great River; a son, Jack Power and his wife Yao Hong of Little Neck; four granddaughters, Bridget, Meghan, Alanna, and Coleen and her husband Hugo; three grandsons, Danny, John Michael and Christopher and his wife Kim; a great-granddaughter, Alyssa; and a great-grandson, Brendan.
The family received visitors on December 1 at Yardley & Pino Funeral Home in Sag Harbor. Funeral services were held on December 2 at St. Andrew’s Church in Sag Harbor; interment followed at Calverton National Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, donations to Father Flanagan’s Boys Town, P.O. Box 7000, Boys Town, NE 68010, would be appreciated by the family.
on Dec 2, 2008