Obituaries

In Memoriam: Rumson Resident Breeda Gillen, 90

Granny to many, loved Rumson resident Bridget “Breeda” Gillen passed peacefully, surrounded by family, on Aug. 17. She was 90.

Breeda Gillen
Photo/family via Thompson Memorial Home

Breeda “lived her later years surrounded by her loving grandchildren John Paul, Kate, Billy and Danny who adored her and treated her like a queen. She was a granny to many and well loved in Rumson, where she lived with her daughter Eileen and her son in law John Burgess. She loved to attend her grandchildren’s school plays, sports games and their sacraments. She lavished her grandchildren with affection and her gentle wisdom. Often singing Irish melodies and telling stories of growing up on the farm. Her deep abiding childlike faith was an abundant source of inner peace which was a comfort and an example to many. Breeda was a joyful prayer warrior and part of a Rumson Rosary group for twenty years which continues
to bear fruit to this day.

Her loving presence will be missed by her many family members in the Gillen-O’Connell-Burgess families.”

Loved ones of Breeda Gillen in her obituary

Born on April 14, 1932 to Brigid and Daniel O’Connell, the fifth of six children in Glanmire, County Cork, Ireland, Breeda grew up on Templesque farm with her siblings William, Helen, Mary, Patrick and Donal. She immigrated to NYC from Cobh, Ireland on a transatlantic steamship in 1955. She was joined later by her brother Patrick and her best friend Patricia who married Patrick.

William Gillen, of Red Hook, Brooklyn proposed to Breeda in 1962. They were married at Church of the Holy Family in the Bronx and they honeymooned in a rose covered cottage in Nantucket. Their first home was a winterized bungalow in Breezy Point and later a house in Belle Harbor, NY, where they raised their four children, Maureen, Eileen, Kevin and Brian.

Breeda loved working with her colleagues at Kings Highway Hospital in Brooklyn retiring at the age of 75. In July 1989 she suffered the loss of her daughter Maureen, a 1st Lt. in the 82nd Airborne Division from Aplastic Anemia.

Visitation will be on Wednesday Aug. 24, from 5 to 8 p.m. at Holy Cross Church, Rumson. Mass of christian burial will be on Thursday, Aug. 25, at 10 a.m. at St. Francis de Sales 129-16 Rockaway Beach Blvd. Belle Harbor, New York. Burial will follow at Holy Cross Cemetery at 3620 Tilden Ave., Brooklyn, NY. A repast will be held in New York at Kennedy’s, 406 Bayside, Breezy Point, NY 11697 from 1 to 3 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 25. Another repast will follow at the Burgess home at 3 Belknap Lane, Rumson, at 7 p.m. on Thursday evening.

— Edited obituary prepared by family via Thompson Memorial Home