Still River resident, volunteer
Irene O’Rourke (Courtesy photo)
Irene (Kassack) O’Rourke of Still River and Sebring, Fla. passed away at sundown on Sunday, Feb. 23, 2014, at her home in Still River. She was 92 years old.
Mrs. O’Rourke was born in Queens, N.Y. She married James (Jimmy) O’Rourke, a lawyer, in 1948. They had five children, Stephen O’Rourke of Silver Spring, Md., Christine O’Rourke of Rumson, N.J., Martin O’Rourke of Millville, Daniel O’Rourke of Holtsville, N.Y., and Andrea O’Rourke-Friel, of Still River.
She is survived by her children and their spouses, 10 grandchildren, and one great-granddaughter. Jimmy O’Rourke passed away in 1997.
Irene taught third grade at Holy Child Jesus School in Richmond Hill, Queens, from 1967 to 1979. She also worked for Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, and CitiBank of New York. A resident of the Buttonwood Bay community in Florida since 1987, she was a founding member of and enjoyed performing for The Buttonwood Theatre in the Park. She was a senior-page correspondent and wrote a column entitled “Among Other Things” for the Sebring News Sun. She volunteered at Walker Memorial Hospital in Avon Park, Fla., as “Cuddles the Clown,” working with infants, and she was an inveterate world traveler.
A funeral Mass was held at Holy Trinity Church in Harvard, and she was interred beside her spouse at the National Cemetery in Bourne, Mass.
