Oona B. Sullivan

Longtime Brooklynite and Fire Island staple, died in her home in Park Slope, Brooklyn on January 15, 2022. She was 92. Oona opened her heart and homes in Brooklyn and Ocean Bay Park, Fire Island, to literally hundreds of friends and family over the decades. Her kindness, charitable heart, hospitality, and wisdom were a gift to so many. Oona was born in Utica, New York to Oona and Joseph J. Burke and moved to Brooklyn as a small child. She earned a degree in Social Science from the College of New Rochelle in 1951 and began her career with "Jubilee Magazine." Oona then went on to a long career as an editor and writer for the Ford Foundation, retiring in 1998. Her father rowed across the Great South Bay to Fire Island sometime in the early 1900's and you could find Oona there every summer her entire life along with her sister Sheila and brother Buddy (Joseph). Oona traveled the world, however her lineage and family ties to Ireland brought her back there every few years to visit cousins and friends. Oona was a voracious reader. She could always be found reading her beloved New York Times or New Yorker Magazine. She was incredibly well read, insightful and so wise. She was a longtime parishioner at both St. Francis Xavier Church of Park Slope and Our Lady of the Magnificat Church on Fire Island. Oona was a positive influence on everyone she met and touched. Her message to us all was to always be "mindful of the needs of others." In lieu of flowers, contributions in her name can be made to: Doctors Without Borders, Ocean Bay Park Fire Department or Save the Children. A wake will be held at Joseph G. Duffy Funeral Home on Friday February 4, 2022 (4pm-8pm). Services will be held at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church on February 5, 2022, at 9:45am.