Lillian Sharkey Obituary, Death – Lillian M. Sharkey, a World War II veteran and dedicated volunteer at Melville’s St. Elizabeth of Hungary Church, died Thursday. She was a century old. (100 years old). She was a US Navy veteran, having served as a nurse in the Navy WAVES, or Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, during WWII. She had been a bank teller before joining the Navy as the war progressed. She earned her nursing training at Walter Reed General Hospital after completing basic training in the Bronx, and she then served at Oak Knoll Naval Hospital in California, caring for wounded service personnel. On June 7, 1946, she was honorably discharged.
She returned to Brooklyn after the war, where she was born on March 29, 1922, and worked as a nurse for a private doctor, later meeting her future husband, John Sharkey, a fellow veteran, at the VA Hospital in Brooklyn. She became involved in numerous ministries at St. Elizabeth’s after coming to Melville in 1972, including the food pantry and preparing children with disabilities to receive their sacraments. She was honored in June by Suffolk County Legislator Tom Donnelly, who thanked her in person for her service, and she was also acknowledged in a virtual Veterans Appreciation Day at the Suffolk County Legislature. “”Lillian Sharkey served in the military when it was unusual for women to do so. Hearing her interesting stories and experiences was incredible.
“A real trailblazer, she is an inspiration to all service members, both male and female, who have followed in her footsteps,” Donnelly said at the time. “I am honored and humbled to have met Lillian Sharkey, and it was a pleasure to commemorate her.” Her husband, John, predeceased her, and she is survived by her son, John (Nancy), grandkids, John (Andrea) and Christina (Thomas Brooke), and great-grandson, Aiden. Bernadette (Charles Fox) and the late Charles, Catherine, and Eugene are her siblings. Her family will receive guests at AL Jacobsen Funeral Home, 1380 New York Avenue, Huntington Station, on Sunday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday’s Mass of Christian Burial will be held at Saint Elizabeth of Hungary R.C. Church, 175 Wolf Hill Road, Melville, NY 11747. Calverton National Cemetery, Wading River, NY 11792, will be used for interment.
