Obituaries

Muriel Heilshorn Kilbride

A longtime summer resident of Fleets Neck, Cutchogue, Muriel Heilshorn Kilbride died March 18, 2020, in Montclair, N.J.

She was born in Brooklyn June 26, 1923, to Margaret (Hudaff) and William H. Heilshorn Jr. and was raised in Floral Park, Long Island, and Norwalk, Conn. She met her future husband, John J. Kilbride (Jack), when they were senior classmates at Sewanhaka High School. They were married June 14, 1947, at Christ Lutheran Church in Floral Park.

As life partner to an international shipping executive who traveled continuously on business, Muriel was an accomplished home-front chief executive, juggling the demands of raising five children at home in Bellerose Village, L.I., and was an accomplished hostess, chef, master of needlework, gardener, creative force, family counselor and community and church volunteer. She was a dear companion and listener to a wide circle of cherished lifelong friends. Muriel was a lifetime learner, always enrolled in some sort of coursework, ranging from literature to opera to Bible studies to flower arranging. She and Jack traveled extensively, internationally and across the U.S., as they worked through their bucket list of national parks. She was Jack’s navigator on his successful mission to capture a photograph in front of every U.S. state capitol building.

After Jack’s death in 1989, Muriel moved to New Canaan, Conn., to live closer to her expanding family. There, she immediately became active in the community and served as a deacon at the Congregational Church of New Canaan. But her favorite place in the world was her home on Peconic Bay. Her porch luncheons and dinner barbecue spreads of local bounty for visiting family and friends, served overlooking the sparkling bay, were legendary. From her porch she watched her 12 grandchildren grow and revel in the freedom and beauty of the place. Wi-Fi and TV were banned (for a while, anyway). She continued Jack’s tradition of raising on the flagpole the nautical signal flags with the initials of her grandchildren and other house visitors to welcome their arrivals. She celebrated her 96th birthday last summer on her porch in the same style.

Muriel is survived by her five children: John, of East Windsor, N.J.; William (Mary), of Chattanooga, Tenn.; David (Kathleen), of Cutchogue; Richard (Marianna), of New Canaan; and Ann McCarthy (Dan), of Montclair, N.J. She also is survived by 11 granddaughters: Sara, Hannah, Addie, Laura, Johanna (Alex Volpi), Patricia, Anna, Elizabeth and Charlotte Kilbride and Emily and Lucie McCarthy. She was predeceased by her parents, her husband, her brother, John W. Heilshorn of Garden City and Litchfield, Conn., and her only grandson, Benjamin Kilbride.

Burial took place March 21 in the family plot at Cemetery of the Evergreens in Brooklyn. A memorial service will be scheduled in the future at the Congregational Church of New Canaan.

This is a paid notice.