Obituary of Patrick J. Higgins

Patrick J. Higgins Is Laid at Final Rest

Rev. Peter Cusick, S.J., Celebrant of Requiem Mass

In St. Joseph’s Church, Minooka

People prominent in the political, civic, fraternal and religious life of the community and hundreds of friends and acquaintances were present in large numbers this morning and paid their tribute to the memory of Patrick J. Higgins, prominent resident of Minooka, whose funeral was held from the family home, 2906 Birney Avenue. It was one of the largest corteges that Lackawanna township has witnessed in many months and was an evidence of the high regard in which Mr. Higgins was held by all.

Mr. Higgins was a resident of Minooka since a child. For years, he conducted a grocery business in Birney Avenue, retiring from activities several years ago. During the term of the late Martin Judge as recorder of deeds of Lackawanna county, Mr. Higgins served as chief deputy.

From the Higgins home the cortege moved to St. Joseph’s church, of which he had been a life long communicant and active worker, where a solemn high mass of requiem was celebrated by Rev. Peter J. Cusick, S.J., a brother-in-law of Mr. Higgins. Rev. Walter A. Gorman was subdeacon, and Mr. James Lowry, a seminarian, was master of ceremonies. The church choir sang the responses of the mass. Miss Helen Vernal was at the organ. As the body entered the church, Joseph Schofield sang “Jesus I Come”; at the offertory Mrs. Helen O’Neill McKinney sang an “Ave Maria” and at the recessional she gave “Mother At Your Feet I’m Kneeling.” At the conclusion of the mass Father Cusick read the prayers for the dead and pronounced final absolution of the body.

Rev. J.J. McCabe and Rev. Father McAndrew of Wilkes-Barre were seated in the sanctuary during the mass.

The honorary pallbearers were: Attorney James J. Powell, John J. Joyce, John McLane, John C. Toole, Benjamin Jennings and Anthony Newcomb.

The active bearers were: Paul McNamara, Edward Judge, Thomas Joyce, John Mulkerin, Frank Duffy of Parsons, and Peter Grogan.

Burial was in St. Joseph’s cemetery, Minooka, where committal services were conducted by Father Cusick and Father Gorman.

Date of Death: February 8, 1935

Contributed by Maria Montoro Edwards