Agnes Virginia Dillon (nee Kearney) 1923-2016

Agnes passed peacefully in her home, in Keansburg, NJ, on Tuesday July 19 at the age of 92
Agnes was born and raised on the west side of Manhattan, the second of 4 daughters of Patrick and Helen (Gaughan) Kearney. Agnes attended Blessed Sacrament Schools and graduated from Hunter College in December of 1945. A job after college working for Metropolitan Life, lasted until she met and married a handsome Irishman named Tom Dillon. She married Tom in 1952 and chose to raise her own family on the west side. The family lived on 108th street a member of Ascension Parish.
Her long and well lived life was full of career accomplishments and happy family filled memories. Agnes was an owner operator of Dillon’s Manhattan Travel Service, located in midtown Manhattan, for almost 40 years. She was a member of the Irish Travel Agents Association of New York, as well as a past President and a member of the 41/74 Club, a philanthropic organization of Professional Women in Travel. Her career in travel offered her the opportunity to visit countries around the globe, often boasting having ‘visited every continent but Antarctica and Australia’.
Agnes retired and closed the office in 1999 and moved out of New York after 82 years, to live in Keansburg on the Jersey Shore, where she spent the majority of summers during her lifetime. She spent her final years and enjoying life of relaxation, reading, crosswords and acrostics and as a member of St. Ann Parish.
Throughout her long life Agnes had lost members of her family that she missed every day; her husband Tom passed away in 1982, her younger sister Marguerite in 1992 and her oldest sister Winifred in 2006.
Agnes is survived by her six daughters and their spouses/partners: Denise Fite, (New York City), Winifred Dillon (Raleigh, NC), Clare Dillon-Palma and Terry Palma (Greenville SC), Virginia Dillon and Elana Davidson (Amherst, Ma), Christina Lenehan and Ricardo Cottrell (Hazlet, NJ) and Shelagh Kerrisk and Sean Kerrisk (Keansburg, NJ). Agnes had 15 grandchildren and 2 great- grandsons – one of whom just joined our family on July 2. Agnes is also survived by her loving sister Eileen Dall and many nieces and nephews, both here and in Ireland.
The following is an excerpt from “A Mother’s Love’s a Blessing”, an Irish song popular in the 1950s, of which Agnes was particularly fond. She liked to sing it to us, her daughters, on many occasions, much to our dismay. At this time, we realize the truth of these words.

A mother's love is a blessing,
No matter where you roam.
Keep her while she's living,
You'll miss her when she's gone.
Love her as in childhood,
When feeble, old and grey,
For you'll never miss a mother's love
'til she's buried beneath the clay.

RIP Mommy, give Tom a hug.