James Fintan Murphy (Fenton, Murf) 85, of Floral Park, NY passed away peacefully and comfortably January 6, 2020 surrounded by family. He was born to Tom and Lizzie Murphy on August 30, 1934 in Kellystown, Grangebellew, County Louth, Ireland.
In 1958 at the age of 24 he left Ireland and flew Aer Lingus to the US. His first stop was in Maryland where he worked on a farm training horses. He stayed for a year but as soon as he received his green card, he got the hell out of there and moved to New York to work for TWA. He would work at TWA for 35 years making lifelong friends.
In 1962 he proposed to and married Rita Levins. He bought her a one-way ticket from Ireland sealing the deal. They went on to have 6 children – Tom (Sheb), Jim (Sue), Sean (Margaret), Mike (Kristine), Liz (Frank) and Greg (Jen) and 15 grandchildren – Errol, Leyla, Aliye, Nicole, Christopher, Peter, Shane, Joe, Vin, Patrick S., Declan, Rory, Olive, Patrick, Anthony, and 1 great granddaughter Olivia. He loved his family dearly.
In 1980 he moved his family to Floral Park to be closer to Belmont Park where he could continue his love of being around horses, placing a small show bet and always late to the window.
Always a resourceful hard worker and no baloney guy he was up for fixing anything and happiest with a hammer in his hands. According to his good friend Maurice Cantillon “It was hard work, but we had a great time.”
In 2016 he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. It slowed him down quite a bit, but his sons did not let that stop them from making sure he kept active and out and about. He especially loved spending time with his family in Pennsylvania.
He will be missed by all.
In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation in his name to:
HORSEPOWER Therapeutic Learning Center, High Point, NC https://www.horsepower.org/