In Memoriam: Rumson-Raised Red Bank and Little Silver Resident, Teacher, Maggie Reid Raffa, 86

Rumson-raised Maggie Reid Raffa, also of Little Silver and Red Bank, passed away Friday, April 25, at her home in Red Bank. She was 86.

“Maggie, was an exceptional woman known for her grace, intellect and generosity. Maggie embraced life. She loved playing any and all card games and was a wiz at all of them. As a young adult, she skied with cousin Tom Loftus and Jean Carmichael who later married. She attended the annual Loftus family reunions in New York and Pennsylvania.

“She stayed in touch with her high school classmates and shared a cabana with her closest friends at the Chapel Beach Club in Sea Bright. She loved taking a chair to the water’s edge and reading a book.
“Most of all, Maggie loved her sleep. She often went to bed at 2 or 3 a.m. and stayed there until 11 a.m. the next day. Her sister-in-law Carol called it ‘being on Maggie time …’

“Maggie took many people under her wing. Entire families, recent immigrants, cousins and younger teachers. She stayed in touch with the Sisters of Mercy who taught her at Holy Cross Elementary School in Rumson and Reb Bank Catholic High School. She eventually became an Associate Sister of Mercy.”
Loved ones of Maggie Raffa in her obituary

Born in Brooklyn, NY in 1939, Maggie was the first of William Joseph and Ann Regina Reid’s, Bob and Gene’s, three children.

The family moved to Rumson in 1946. From 1946 onward, Maggie lived in the Rumson, Red Bank and Little Silver area, near the beach in Sea Bright. She attended Holy Cross Elementary School in Rumson and then Red Bank Catholic High School, where she was class valedictorian in 1956. She went on to graduate from Trinity College in Washington, D.C. in 1960, before returning to Rumson to help her mother with her younger brothers.

She went on to teach fifth grade at Fairview Middle School and 4th grade at New Monmouth Middle School, both in Middletown, for a combined 37 years.

“She understood how children learn and delighted in helping them open their eyes to the world. She always taught her students This Land Is Your Land, by Woody Guthrie. She fiercely believed in equality and was unimpressed by wealth.”

Strong ties among her sprawling Irish American family always influenced Maggie’s life. As the only girl in her immediate family, her female cousins on the Loftus side became more like her sisters. She cherished her 17 aunts and uncles and male cousins as well, and, later on, their children.

When the family re-established ties with the Reid and Loftus families in Ireland, many trans-Atlantic visits followed. Everyone from the Loftus and Reid families stayed at Maggie’s house, or she stayed at theirs.

Maggie did not have biological children, but she adored her brother Tom and sister-in-law Dani’s daughters, Jennifer and Nellie. She loved taking them to the beach, buying them clothes, always at steep discounts which she bragged about. And, later on, her love extended to their children and her cousins’ children as well.

When her brother Bill and his wife Carol adopted three Russian children, Maggie showered love on Natasha, Anya and Sasha. “She was a very important influence in their lives.”

In 2012, Maggie married Bob Raffa, a former classmate from Red Bank Catholic High School. They enjoyed spending winters in Florida and summers in New Jersey, which allowed them to stay close to friends and family in both states.

“Maggie leaves behind a large group of family and friends whom she made feel special. On her kitchen window sill, above the sink in her New Jersey home, she had a hand printed card that said, ‘Today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present.’ In a Florida home that she recently sold, she had a rock painted with the following: ‘Love with all your heart.’
That’s what Maggie did each and every day of her life.”

There will be a visitation on Wednesday, April 30, from 4 to 8 p.m. at the John E. Day Funeral Home, 85 Riverside Ave. Red Bank. A mass of christian burial will be celebrated on Thursday, May 1, at 10:30 a.m. at the Church of the Nativity in Fair Haven. Interment to immediately follow at Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Middletown. In lieu of flowers, donations to: Sisters of Mercy.

— Edited obituary prepared by family via John E. Day Funeral Home

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