Susan Ellen Cahill
Susan Ellen Cahill, 84, died peacefully at her home in Greenwich on February 23, 2023, surrounded by her loving family. Sue was born in the Bronx in 1938, the daughter of NYFD Captain James Daly and Mary Daly. Her parents were immigrants from County Monaghan, Ireland. Sue is predeceased by her muchloved siblings Mary Holdner and Tom Daly.
Sue graduated from St. Barnabas High School in the Bronx and was attending Hunter College when a car accident in the Hamptons led to an unexpected courtship with and marriage to a federal prosecutor named Thomas J. Cahill. Tom was also the child of Irish immigrants.
They wed 61 years ago this week, and quickly had children. The first two were twin daughters Lisa and Christina, followed soon after by their eldest son, John, and then a second son Tom. The couple eventually moved from Stuyvesant Town in New York City to Mount Vernon, New York, where they had two more daughters, Susannah and Petra. The family moved to Greenwich in 1975, and have lived in the same lovely home overlooking a saltwater marsh in Bruce Park for over 45 years. All six children were graduates of Greenwich High School. The heart and soul of Sue was found in the kitchen.
Her mother had been a horrible cook and, in contrast, Sue blossomed as a young mother with Julia Child as her tutor. There was never a dish that more butter couldn’t fix. Whether dinner was for the standard eight or multiples of that seemed to make no difference to her “loaves and fishes’’ style. Her hosting philosophy was “the more the merrier” and as a result, the Cahill home became a second home, and Sue a second mother to many family friends. She was never happier than when engulfed by the happy chaos and beehive routine of her large family and friends. Her parenting philosophy was similarly laid back. She did not hover, she did not coddle and, by example, she encouraged independence and resilience in her children. Sue was a lifelong classical music fan and New York’s classical radio station WQXR was always playing in her home. She became a self-taught expert in 18th and 19th Century American antiques. The home she created is the beautiful result of her superb eye and collecting efforts over the years. There was never a tag sale, auction or thrift shop Sue could pass up.
In the late 1970s, Sue turned to Greenwich real estate sales as a career that could keep her local and available for the demands of running a busy household. Those were days when the number of brokers in town was relatively small and that professional community an intimate one. She loved and valued her many friends at Ladd & Nichols and Cleveland, Duble & Arnold. She remained active in Greenwich real estate well into her 70s, serving as the broker for her son’s purchase of a home in Greenwich as her final transaction.
Sue had a natural elegance and graceful and soft manner that disguised an inner strength and resolve that could move mountains. She had a kind, selfless, empathetic and gentle nature that drew people to her. She was the quiet listener in a room who inevitably brought the most insight to a conversation in her inimitable eloquent and economic fashion.
Sue loved a great lipstick, a well tied Hermes scarf (“never too tight”), her copper pots, gardens, orchids and sporty convertibles. Later in life she prized her time with the Knollwood Garden Club in Greenwich and her many friends there. Her passions included European travel with her family, partly for the frequent ice cream and gelato breaks. She hoarded the New York Times. Most of all, though, she loved her husband of nearly 61 years, Tom Cahill, their six children (Lisa (Mark Peress), Christina (Ted Kenny), John, Tom ( Jamie), Susannah and Petra (Don Shillingburg)), their spouses and her darling eight grandchildren, all of whom survive her: Lucie, Emmett, Tess, Clara, Eamon, June, Poppy and Tom.
Sue’s family will host a memorial service befitting her beautiful life at 10 a.m. on Friday, March 3rd, at St. Mary’s Church in Greenwich, with a reception to follow.
Anyone wishing to make a donation in Sue’s memory might consider the nonprofit Knollwood Garden Club of Greenwich, which is restoring the Seaside Garden at Todd’s Point. The Club gave Sue great joy and many dear friends. Checks can be made out to the Knollwood Garden Club and mailed to Marie Williams, President, Knollwood Garden Club, 6 Stanwich Road, Greenwich, CT 06830. Also, Sue spent a lifetime enjoying WQXR public radio station. A gift to the station in her name would make her smile.