Estelle A. Spillane

Estelle A. Spillane, 98 of Brick formerly of Spring Lake Heights, passed away peacefully on February 18, 2021 at the Chelsea in Brick, unable to recover from the effects of battling through Covid-19.
Born May 8, 1922, in Jersey City, and named Stella Josephine (the Star of Joseph) for her deceased brother who was stricken with tuberculosis. She attended St John the Baptist grammar school on Kennedy Blvd and high school at St. Dominic Academy, both in Jersey City. After high school, she became a secretary in the financial district in Manhattan. It was here she became known as Estelle.

Estelle was a member of the “Greatest Generation” of Americans, living through Prohibition, The Great Depression, and World War II. In 1947, she married Francis X. Spillane, who served in the Pacific on a Destroyer Escort, during the War. At the age of 39, she overcame the tragedy and grief of becoming a young widow with 4 children, ages 5 – 12. She supported and raised them in tough times. In 1963, Estelle went back to work at Sears and Roebuck’s in Union City as a tele typist for the Sears Catalog, communicating daily with headquarters in Chicago. She left Sears and became the executive secretary for Buildings and Grounds at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, where she worked until 1997. She, then joined her family “down the shore” in Wall, and later lived in Spring Lake Heights.

Not one to sit in retirement, Estelle volunteered at her two favorite parishes, St. Denis in Manasquan and St. Mark’s in Sea Girt. A member of the Rosary Society and Social Concerns Committee, she assisted people with needs, both economical and spiritual. We’d laugh when she would visit nursing homes and tell us, she had read to “the old” people, many of whom she was older than by 10 years. She was a Eucharistic Minister and a member of the Lay Order of the Carmalites.

Estelle leaves behind her three children, Francis Spillane (wife Cheryl), Eileen Spillane-Grieco (husband Robert), Robert Spillane (wife Edna), and daughter in-law Kathleen (K.C.) Spillane (husband James),11 grandchildren, and 16 great-grandchildren. Estelle was predeceased by her husband Francis X Spillane in 1961, her youngest child James Spillane in 2015, and her siblings George McKnight and Eleanor Grace.

Family and friends are invited to attend a visitation on Tuesday, February 23, 2021 from 4-8 pm at Orender Family Home for Funerals 2643 Old Bridge Road Manasquan, NJ. A Mass of Christian Burial will be 10 am Wednesday, February 24, 2021 at Church of St. Denis, Manasquan, NJ. The family requests no flowers. Instead, donations may be made by sending a check to St Mark’s Social Concerns Committee 215 Crescent Pkwy Sea Girt NJ 08750. To send condolences to the family please visit www.orenderfamilyhome.net .

The Spillane family would like to express its sincere gratitude to the Healthcare Workers: Doctors, Nurses, and staff at Ocean Medical Center who worked diligently and compassionately to help our mother fight this dreadful disease. The loyal nurse and aides from Grace Hospice. And to the administration and staff at the Chelsea, led by Nate Taylor, thank you for the empathy, sympathy, and care you extended to Estelle. The extreme measures you offered, helping Estelle to comfortably cope these last few weeks, will be forever appreciated.