Earl Garvey

1942 - 2019

Earl Garvey

- - December 10, 1942 - July 14, 2019

Earl Garvey, father, grandfather, brother, uncle, cousin, friend, and no doubt always the coolest guy in the room, passed away July 14, after a long illness, surrounded by his devoted children.

He is survived by his children, Marie, Patricia, Edward, and Marianne, and their spouses, his seven grandchildren; Megan, Kenneth, Laura, Kaitlin, Amanda, Catherine, and Phoebe, and his two great-grandchildren, Silas and Eli. Earl was the son of Leo and Mary Garvey, and was born and raised in Incarnation Parish, Washington Heights, New York. He was widowed from Madeline Garvey in 2014. Earl was one of eight kids, including Leo, Gerard, Gerald, Rita, Janet, Tony, and Martin. He often regaled us with crazy tales of the family growing up in a two-bedroom apartment together in New York City.

Earl was so funny, so smart, and so loved. He taught us to love books; he left behind a handwritten notebook of the last 200 books he read with his thoughts on each. He also worshipped music, it was impossible to take a car ride with him without hearing him belt out "Blue Moon" or "Runaround Sue," windows down. He'd tell you all you really need to know are three chords on an acoustic guitar and you could play any song in the world. At home, he listened to jazz.

He showed up to everything we did and cheered each and every one of us on, proud of our promotions and graduations and recitals and home runs and businesses and standup comedy. Whatever we achieved, it was the biggest deal in the world to our pop. He would lead you to believe you could be President, if only you just felt like it.

A proud Trump-hating, Yankee-loving veteran, Earl honorably served in the United States ARMY stationed in Normandy, France, starting when he was 18. He would often sing his ARMY songs and tell us stories about serving with his boys. He loved a good protest, a good roast beef and cabbage, and a good Guinness.

He would like to tell you was also an actor. That's right. In 2011, he got a part as an extra on the HBO series, "Mildred Pierce." He was fitted in a period costume and filmed for three days on a bus a few rows behind Kate Winslet, then couldn't stop talking about being "in the biz." As he put it, he was Kate's "co-star." At the time he kept a blog about his experience, writing, "I have acting experience...just ask Kate Winslet, I was her co-star in Mildred Pierce (the movie). Send me a script, I'll read for you (In show business talk, that means I'll audition!)"

Earl worked for and retired from the New York City Subway for 25 years and had a love of trains. After he retired from the transit authority, he worked for the post office. He was incredibly proud of both jobs.

Most importantly, he was a great man to our family. He left so many people here better for having known him, that's the truth. We will all miss him so much.

Smile down on us Poppy. Hope there's music and baseball wherever you are.

We love you, rest in peace.

A memorial in Earl's honor will be held at a later date.