Marguerite Agatha Brierton

Marguerite Agatha Brierton was born August 2, 1902, the daughter of Harry Joseph Brierton, Sr. and Margaret Jane McAnn, and granddaughter of James Brierton and Anna Corr, and James Paul McAnn and Margaret Kiellian, in Bay Ridge, NY.

The family was relatively comfortable and spent summer vacations on the shore in Northern New Jersey, particularly in Leopold, apparently renting houses there. At some point, the family moved their primary home from Bay Ridge to South Ozone Park, NY.

When Harry Joseph Brierton died, in 1909, Margaret Jane McAnn opened a General Store on Woodhaven Blvd., which she ran with the help of Marguerite and the two of them were apparently very close to each other. The family could not have had too much difficulty, because the vacations in New Jersey continued well into the 1920's.

Judging from the photos in her personal album covering the late 1910's into the 1920's, she spent her time with a relatively wealthy crowd, at Coney Island, South Beach, and other places, being seen in one of the photos in a rather nice Touring Car.

Marguerite had several friends who remained close for most of their lives, including Virginia Devoy, who she knew from childhood, and Mildred Meehan, who she worked with at Mutual Insurance in New York (the latter who is in many of the pictures in the earlier mentioned photo album).

Marguerite married William August Schmitt on September 2, 1928 in a small ceremony held at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle on 60th Street in Manhattan. We do not know how they met, but apparently the Schmitt family was not altogether pleased with his selection of an Irish girl. Because of this and the fact that her mother, Margaret Jane McAnn had died earlier that year, many in the family were not told at the time of the marriage, and were given a later (false) date once the news of the marriage was broken to the families.

Marguerite and William lived for a time in Bay Ridge, NY, and eventually moved to Woodhaven, NY. The had 4 children, William Jude, Marian Joan, Harry Joseph, and Margaret Jane.

After William Jude married in 1954, and Harry Joseph was killed in 1958, Marguerite, William August, Marion Joan, and Margaret Jane moved to Baldwin, NY in about 1959. Margaret Jane married in 1963, and William August died in 1973.

Marguerite was close to all of her grandchildren, and participated in the "Presentation of the Gifts" and her grandson, William's, wedding, along with Myrtle Kappert and Albinas Kuslis.

Marguerite lived long enough to know a number of her great grandchildren and continued living in Baldwin with Marion until the last years of her life, which were spent in the nursing home connected with North Shore University Hospital. There, suffering from Alzheimers Disease, Marguerite died on May 5, 1995 and was buried in the Brierton family plot in Holy Cross Cemetery in Brooklyn, NY.