Thursday, October 1, 2026
Longtime East Rockaway resident Carthene (Marinaro) McQuade has died.
McQuade was born Chirina Carthene Marinaro on October 11, 1922, in Danbury, Connecticut. She was the daughter of southern Italian immigrants, first-generation Americans Louis Marinaro and Mary Tomaino. As an Italian-American woman, McQuade broke through the glass ceiling by going to and graduating New Britain Teachers College in Connecticut. She ventured from the bucolic familiarity of the Berkshire Valley to receive her Masters degree in Business at New York University in Manhattan. She taught at Danbury High School until she married.
On a vacation trip to Montreal, she met Captain Francis J. McQuade, U.S.N., and they were married in 1950. They moved from Brooklyn to East Rockaway in 1959, and called East Rockaway home for the rest of their lives. Frank died in 1993.
McQuade had great love for her parish church, Saint Raymond’s, and invested deeply in the life of her parish. She cherished her time with her Rosary Society sisters, and took pride in her parish school, where she also taught. She spoke with great reverence of the priests ministering in the parish, and of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary stationed at Saint Raymond’s. She was staunch in her orthodoxy as a Catholic woman and a steady supporter of civil rights activism on behalf of the unborn. McQuade loved her community of East Rockaway and was an unabashed patriot — she loved America, cherished its traditions, and was a great supporter of its troops. Carthene and Frank also demonstrated preferential option for the poor through a lifetime of charitable giving.
But it was in love for her family that Carthene most excelled. She imparted a service ethic and encouraged community activism of her children, resulting in her them becoming prominent in civic activities, politics, church affairs, civil rights, athletics, Scouting, education and youth programs.
McQuade leaves behind her six adult children: Mary Meehan, Francis X. McQuade, Anthony McQuade, Noreen Leahy, Joseph McQuade and John McQuade; eighteen grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
