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ANNE COFFEY KEEGAN

 by: Hugh O'Brien

 Saltairians who boast about how long they’ve lived in the village have to take a back seat to Anne Keegan.  For Anne, born in Bay Shore in the first year of Calvin Coolidge’s presidency, beats all challengers for community longevity, hands down.  Yet Anne’s place in Saltaire history runs much deeper than that simple, if impressive, statistic, because it was her father, the legendary Mike Coffey, who almost single-handedly conceived and built so many of the village’s original houses in the years after its founding.  For those who’ve heard the term “Coffey house” but never really knew what it meant, now you know: it was Anne’s dad who, over a century ago, did more than anyone to shape the community that continues to evolve all these decades later.  And it was his daughter, raised from birth as a year-round resident of Saltaire, who not only bore witness to that century of change, but imparted so much of her character to help transform Saltairians’ image of their community into reality: a place where families, friends and neighbors respect, love and look out for one another.

 

Generations of Saltairians knew Anne Keegan, and it’s fair to say not one person among them could even find a bad word to say about her if they tried.  Anne was the embodiment of warmth, helpfulness and decency.  In Anne, newcomers would always find a heartfelt welcome to a strange town, a friendliness that instantly put you at ease and made you feel that this was now your home, too.  Her graciousness, humor and never-failing smile would win over even the most aloof individual.  It was a joy to hear Anne laugh, a laugh that wasn’t so much infectious as it was mothering, something that drew you in and made you feel part of Anne’s extended family – all of Saltaire.  Her generosity – be it of her time, her work, or just her food and drink at the Keegan household – was always reliable; her good spirits, genuine and unforced.  A phrase often used to describe Anne was what a “sweetheart” she was, and no one ever meant it insincerely or condescendingly; for Anne’s heart was indeed a sweet one, filled with a regard for others that was unfeigned, a concern for their well-being and their feelings over her own.  When one thinks of Anne, perhaps the word that most comes to mind is kindness.  It was just one of her traits, but that single word might be all you need to know about this wonderful and remarkable woman.

 

Yet Anne’s unbreakable good cheer never quite concealed her inner toughness, her ability to cope with life’s hardships with determination but never with despair.  Anne was about 10 when she first met her future husband, when Tom was visiting his uncle in Saltaire.  Tom said he knew “from the get-go” Anne was the girl for him, and in 1946 they married and enjoyed 59 years of happiness together.  (Anne always claimed that during the first half of her life she was known in Saltaire as Mike Coffey’s daughter, but that once her husband got involved in the Fire Company she became known as “Tom Keegan’s wife”!)  Their life together was not without its trials and hardships, more than most people have to face in this world, but together they overcame the adversities flung their way and emerged the stronger.  Tom always said it was Anne, her devotion, her resilience, her belief in him – plus her innate stubbornness – that helped him get through the severe physical challenges he had first to face, then overcome; and considering how deeply those qualities ran in Tom himself, that was great praise indeed.  The Keegans were a family of love and faith because they lived those qualities, saw them tested, and came through.  And at the center of it all was Anne, the family’s rock, guiding light, and in so many ways, their guardian angel.    

 

Anne was raised to be considerate of others and to mind the rules, but she could be mischievous and had an endless sense of fun.  She cheerfully and unhesitatingly threw herself into whatever community events needed a helping hand, and enjoyed all the things Saltaire and Fire Island have to offer, in winter as well as summer.  Anne attended school on the island and later in Bay Shore, in an era when living out here was isolated and difficult, yet an ideal place to grow up.  She knew personally all those who across the eleven decades of her life were once the life and soul of this village, many now forgotten or commemorated only on an obscure plaque.  Anne witnessed firsthand such tribulations in Saltaire history as the great hurricane of 1938 and the polio epidemic of 1954, and characteristically did all she could, even as a young girl, to help others cope with their losses.  More than anyone who ever lived in our community, Anne Keegan was Saltaire, its history and all that is good and kind and decent about it.

 

Although she stopped being a year-rounder after she married, Anne came to Saltaire every summer and with Tom raised her family to love it as much as she had.  She never saw the changes that inevitably occurred in the village in a bad way, longing for “the good old days,” but simply as the natural progress vital to the community’s well-being, and she did her part to keep the core of the village’s values alive and fresh for all who came after.  There was no meanness in her, no regrets, nothing selfish or unkind.  Even in her 90s, Anne would be more concerned about how you were than about her own well-being, and her concern was real; it could never be otherwise.  Anne made us feel better just by seeing her, and few indeed can lay claim to possessing that quality.

 

Anne Keegan paid her final visit to Saltaire just a few days before her death, wanting, she said, to see the place that meant more to her than anywhere else on Earth one last time.  It was not a melancholy visit, nor an occasion for sadness or regret, however.  Rather, this last glimpse of her home was a coda to a life well-lived, a drawing of the curtain on the place where that life had begun almost a century earlier: a symbolic closing of the circle at once both nostalgic and satisfying, where tears, if any were shed, were for warm memories, thankfulness and acceptance. 

 

Anne’s religion told her she would be reunited with Tom, and no one doubts that belief was justified.  Besides her husband, Anne was also pre-deceased by their son, Michael, but is survived by her and Tom’s daughters, Barbara, Terry, Kathleen and Ellen, 14 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.  The Coffey-Keegan story in Saltaire lives on.

 

Anne Frances Coffey Keegan, lifelong resident of Saltaire, was born March 10, 1924, and passed away September 27, 2021, age 97.