News

By Emily J. Minor

retirement, has died of complications related to Alzheimer’s disease. She was
82.

Mrs. Simpson is survived by her husband of 58 years, Bernie, who still lives at Crown Colony. The couple moved to Florida permanently from East North Point, N.Y., in 1989 when Bernie Simpson
retired. For many years, Eileen Simpson worked as a secretary for the
Department of Health in Suffolk, N.Y.

Mr. Simpson said his wife died Feb. 23 at Boulevard Manor Nursing Center in Boynton Beach, where she had been living since falling last summer and breaking her elbow. After a short hospital
stay, Eileen Simpson went through rehabilitation and then began living in the
home because she needed so much care, he said.

But before she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, the couple enjoyed many years of traveling — both in Florida, the continental U.S. and abroad. On several occasions, the Simpsons visited Mrs.
Simpson’s family in Ireland — where her parents were born — and often
entertained her Irish relatives at their home in Crown Colony Club
condominiums, he said.

Several years after they retired here, Mrs. Simpson began working as editor of the Crown Colony Club newspaper — a pastime she loved, said her
husband.

“She would write about people who went on trips, people on vacation, people who were deceased,” he said. “She would go around and if people wanted the information revealed, she would put it
in the paper.”

Mr. Simpson said his wife did this for about 6 years. But in 2002, the newspaper began relying on e-mail for residents to get their news and Mrs. Simpson no longer acted the role of condo
reporter.

Besides her husband, three children survive her: Daughters Laura and Kerry and son, Robert. Her sister, Kitty Higgins, also survives her,
as do two brothers, Emmet and Edward O’Rourke. A daughter, Gail, preceded her
in death.

Mrs. Simpson’s remains were cremated. She will be interred at Calverton National Cemetery in Long Island.