Shelter Island Reporter obituaries: Cahill, Ivers, Southwick
Beverly Ann Cahill
Longtime Shelter Island resident Beverly Ann Cahill passed away suddenly at the Hampton Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Southampton on Jan. 7 at the age of 88.
A full-time Islander for 55 years, known to her many Island friends as Bev, she was born in Manhattan on Nov. 8, 1932, coinciding with the first of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s presidential wins.
Her mother Mildred had been divorced and married Shelter Island native William B. Price, who adopted Beverly and her younger sister Mickey as children. After living in New York City for a period of time, the family settled in New Jersey, first Elizabeth, and then in Colonia.
During this time Bev never lost touch, or maybe even enhanced and cemented, her love for this Island.
As a child she summered on Shelter Island, sharing the simple life with her cousins, renting one house she often told her family about at the corner of West Neck and West Neck, while also enjoying time on the farm of her grandparents, Harold and Jessie Price.
Bev started her long and notable career in the medical field by graduating from nursing school at Flower Fifth Avenue Hospital (now New York Medical College) and continued that education throughout her professional endeavors as a registered nurse.
In 1956 she married Plainfield, N.J. Police Officer John (Jack) Cahill. Together they started to build their life in a picturesque three-bedroom house in Plainfield. It was there that Jack would walk Bev to her shifts as a nurse at Muhlenberg Hospital.
In the early to mid-1960’s they adopted first Scott and then Susan.
In 1965 it all changed. During one of the family’s many trips to Shelter Island, they found a tavern, with two additional residential structures on the property on Burns Avenue known as the Coecles Harbor Inn. They purchased the business with their life savings and in December of that year, moved their budding family to Shelter Island for good. Jack worked the bar, while Bev worked overnights first at the Greenport Nursing Home (now San Simeon) and then Eastern Long Island, while the kids slept upstairs.
During this time, they also purchased and ran the Pyrofax propane gas concession on the Island.
Bev solidified and anchored her position in the Island community with her tireless volunteer efforts. She manned the medical tent at the Shelter Island 10K, was a member of the Shelter Island Fire Department Ladies Auxiliary, the Presbyterian Church and the Garden Club.
Her family remembered how she loved serving food to her grandchildren at the annual Fire Department Chicken Barbecue. Though not a baseball fan, she took a genuine liking to the Bucks baseball team and couldn’t get enough of taking in the games on warm Island nights at Fiske Field.
She also loved being a part of the quilters, and never got tired of working with her hands and never tired of working in the yard.
Christmas stockings that she made hang in her children’s homes during the holidays.
She is predeceased by her husband Jack, mother Mildred, father William and sister Mickey.
She was a devoted mother to daughter Susan Denton (Dwayne), son Scott (Dana) and six adored grandchildren: Shayla, Daniel, Lillian, Sydney, Tristan and Paige.
A celebration of her life will be held at a later date on Shelter Island.
In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the Shelter Island Fire Department Ladies Auxiliary, PO Box 613, Shelter Island, NY 11964.
Nancy Tuttle Ivers
Nancy Tuttle Ivers of Stuart, Fla. and Shelter Island died peacefully in her home at Addington Place on Dec. 31, 2020. She was preceded in death by her beloved husband of 63 years, F. Kenneth Ivers II, who died on Oct. 30, 2020.
Nancy was born in Baltimore, Md. on Jan. 6, 1935. Her parents were Alice Boyle and John M. Tuttle, Jr., of Meriden, Conn. In 1957 she graduated from Connecticut College in New London with a degree in political science.
During the summer of 1955, she traveled to Shelter Island for a job at the Pridwin Hotel as a waitress. There, she met her future husband, Ken. They were married at St. Bart’s Church in Manhattan on July 6, 1957. Together they raised three children in Manhasset where they lived for 37 years.
After Ken retired, they split their time between Shelter Island and Palm City, Fla. where she was a long-time resident of the Harbour Ridge community. She and Ken were avid golfers and, even though Nancy did not learn the game until after she was married, she became quite competitive. She was a longtime member and top competitor within both the Women’s Metropolitan Golf Association, serving New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and the Women’s Long Island Golf Association.
She earned the title of Women’s Champion multiple times at Gardiner’s Bay Country Club, Harbour Ridge Yacht and Country Club in Palm City, and North Hempstead Country Club in Port Washington, where she held the course record with a score of 71. Throughout those years, her skills earned her six holes-in-one.
Nancy passed the love of the game of golf on to her eight beloved grandchildren and she enjoyed nothing more than watching them play and improve, her family said. She spent over 25 summers gathering them close together at the cottage she shared with Ken on the Island. Her time, devotion and interest in their lives allowed eight cousins to develop relationships that will last a lifetime.
Nancy is survived by her three children, Frederick (Rick) Kenneth Ivers III of Chatham, N.J.; Linda Ivers Quinn of East Norwich, N.Y., and Karen Ivers Dailey of Stuart, Fla.; and eight grandchildren: Nicholas Ivers, Nathalie Ivers Kiely, Eric Ivers, Sean Quinn, Halsey Quinn, Shea Dailey, Ryan Dailey and Lauren Dailey.
A memorial service will be held in Florida at Forest Hills Funeral Home, Palm City Chapel, at 4 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 22, 2021. In lieu of flowers, please consider donations to The Hope Center for Autism, 2580 SE Willoughby Blvd., Stuart, Fla, 34994, hopecenterforautism.org.
William Southwick
William (Bill) Southwick passed away on Jan. 16, 2021 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. Bill was a long-time Shelter Island resident, moving here in 1970 and living here full-time until his retirement in 1996, where he ran Griffing and Southwick Insurance, formerly known as Evans K. Griffing Insurance.
Bill was born in Albany, N.Y. on April 19, 1938 and raised in New Hartford, N.Y. He went to St. Lawrence University where he studied business economics (some say with a dual major in hunting and fishing) and met his wife of almost 60 years, Margaret (Meg) Southwick.
Bill attended St. Lawrence under the ROTC program and went on to serve two years in the Army, stationed in Fort Sill Okla., where he rose in the ranks to 1st Lieutenant, Infantry Division, with a specialization as a nuclear weapons officer.
Bill was briefly deployed during the Cuban Missile Crisis conflict and later retired from the Army in 1968. Bill and Meg returned to Bill’s hometown of New Hartford where he went into claims adjusting with his father in a family business named Southwick Associates. Later Bill and Meg moved to Shelter Island, Meg’s hometown, where he joined his father-in-law Evans Griffing, forming Griffing and Southwick Insurance.
Bill and Meg raised their two boys, William G. (Bill) and Richard E. (Rick) over the course of the next three decades. Bill was well known on Shelter Island as an avid golfer at Gardiner’s Bay, a fisherman, and private pilot. If it was about the outdoors, Bill was all in, and if that did not fully occupy his time, he filled it by building boats, planes and cars with his friends on the Island.
He was featured in a March 17, 1983 Reporter article after completing a replica 1937 Jaguar SS100 that included help from other Islanders, with pinstripe detail work done by Meg.
Fishing the waters of eastern Long Island was a huge passion of Bill’s. You might find him in an Island harbor or 70 miles off Montauk, where catching yellowfin tuna was always a thrill for him. Whether fishing with longtime Island friends or introducing his New York City friends and business clients to these waters, he was always gratified when someone caught their first bass, shark or tuna.
It made him happier than if he’d caught it himself, his family said.
Bill is preceded in death by his parents, Fred and June Southwick, his in-laws Evans K. and Margaret B. Griffing, who were 80-plus years residents of Shelter Island. Bill is survived by Meg, his brother Richard, his two sons Bill (Lia), Rick (Michelle) and his daughters Liza (Jack), and daughter Cara, and soon-to-be adopted daughter, Gianna.
The family is planning a celebration of life this summer on Shelter Island where, according to Bill’s wishes, some of his ashes will be laid to rest behind the Presbyterian Church in a Griffing family plot, and the rest at Rebel Rock, one of his favorite fishing locations.
The family asks that in lieu of flowers donations be made to St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. (501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105) where Bill had a special place in his heart for kids battling cancer.
