OBITUARIES

Sheilah Urrutia once waltzed grounds of Manhattan College

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Sheilah Urrutia passed away at the Schervier Rehabilitation and Nursing Center Aug. 29, 2018.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Arthur Urrutia in August 2014, who was known as “Arty the Barber” at Manhattan College for more than 50 years.

She retired from Manhattan College herself as an administrator in 2004.

She was a lifelong resident of the Bronx, spending more than 60 years of that time in Riverdale with her husband, raising three girls, Norah, Audrey and Noel.

Hailing from a proud northern Irish Catholic family, she helped raise her two younger brothers after the death of her own mother in 1938 when she was just 6 years old.

As a teenager, she met and fell in love with Arty — who everyone, including her, called “Eddy” — and they began a courtship that led to their marriage in 1956, and then to a family soon thereafter. They moved in to 500 W. 235th St., around 1960, and were known throughout the community as “the lovebirds” as they were inseparable, dining at Bluebay, praying at “St. Gabes,” waltzing around the grounds of Manhattan College, or driving around looking for a parking spot.

She now joins Arty and her daughter Audrey, her parents, and her brother Hugh. May she and they rest in peace.

She leaves behind her brother Neil; her daughter Norah and husband Tom Fernandez, and her daughter Noel and her husband Walter Walsh; and four grandchildren, Joanna, Ian, Rosie and Leo.

A funeral Mass and life celebration was held Aug. 31 at the Schervier Home, followed by a burial at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne.

Sheilah Urrutia,