April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
Siena College becomes scene of actress's farewell
A Funeral Mass for the actress, who appeared in scores of motion pictures during her 60-year career, was celebrated at St. Mary of the Angels Chapel at Siena College in Loudonville on June 29. She was buried at Most Holy Redeemer Cemetery in Niskayuna.
Ms. O'Sullivan was the wife of Siena trustee emeritus and Niskayuna resident James Cushing. The two were married in 1983 at Siena. Ms. O'Sullivan was also the mother of seven children, including actress Mia Farrow.
Links to college
Siena College handled many of the arrangements for the funeral, including coordinating the media, arranging police escorts for the procession and setting up accommodations for the family."The Cushing family has been very supportive of Siena College," said Sharon Burstein, director of public relations for the school. "We extended the offer [to assist] because Jim Cushing is family."
The Cushing family's involvement at Siena includes the Maureen O'Sullivan Cushing Scholarship, the largest endowed scholarship at Siena, and the Cushing Village Townhouses. Some of Mrs. O'Sullivan's grandchildren attended the college and one, Mia Farrow's son Moses, is a student there now.
Rev. Hugh Hines, OFM, former president of Siena and presider at the funeral (see separate article), said, "It is fitting her funeral is at Siena. She received an honorary degree here and her wedding was here. It was a great marriage."
Hospitality
Preparations at Siena began last week and involved all non-academic offices on campus, Ms. Burstein said. The townhouses where the family stayed were cleaned and decorated, the food service department planned meals for the family, campus security coordinated security issues with the Colonie and Niskayuna police departments, campus ministry worked out the details for the Mass and the public relations department handled all media requests."Many offices worked diligently up until late Friday night," Ms. Burstein said. Other offices, she said, continued to work during the weekend and arrived by 7:30 a.m. on Monday.
Despite all of the planning, a car accident on Route 9 caused a campus-wide power failure during the Funeral Mass. The power loss disrupted the microphones and fans in the chapel, and caused the fire doors in the chapel to close.
Private moments
Ms. Burstein described the power failure as an "act of God" that granted the family's wish that the funeral be private. A Siena-controlled video camera was the only camera allowed in the chapel during the service. It was providing live feed for the local media. The power failure disrupted its broadcast."Mr. Cushing wanted it private," Ms. Burstein said. "The wake was public, but the Mass and burial were to be private."
In a written statement to the press, Mr. Cushing said, "At this time, the family wishes to grieve in private for we have all suffered a great loss. Maureen was the love of my life, and the affection that all of her children had for her was deep and lasting."
In his homily, Father Hines said Ms. O'Sullivan depicted the first reading, which was from Proverbs on a good wife.
"She was working to serve God through her family," he said. "She was a woman of optimism and spunk, but she also had that Irish faith. She went through life with this great faith."
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