A life full of family and love

Marie Croutier, longtime Rockville Centre resident and matriarch of a large and loving family, died from pneumonia on July 13, just days before her 84th birthday.

Marie was born to John and Ann Mulligan in Hell’s Kitchen on July 16, 1930. Soon after, her family moved to Middle Village in Queens, where she grew up and met her future husband, William Croutier. She graduated from Wisdom High School in Queens and worked for a telephone company for a while thereafter. In 1952, Marie and William married, and the two moved to Rockville Centre in 1958.

After moving to Rockville Centre, Croutier devoted herself to her ever-growing family. She raised 10 children and then helped raise her grandchildren as well.

“Family was everything to her,” said her eldest son, William Croutier, Jr. “She had her faith, her family and my dad. That was her whole life. And basketball games.”

What started as supporting her sons in their athletic endeavors developed into a love of the sport. “She watched all the St. John’s games on TV, all the Knicks games on TV,” William said. “She started going to the grandchildren’s games, and that was whatever they were playing.”

Watching and participating in her children’s sports became a way for Croutier to get to know the neighborhood.

“She had a lot of friends in Rockville Centre through all the different sports,” William said. “My parents used to have parties after all the basketball games, so they were friendly with everybody.”

Her family said that her desire to be there for them was one of her stand-out characteristics. “She never missed anything,” said her granddaughter Maggie Regan. “Three weeks before she passed, she was at my son’s kindergarten graduation at St. Agnes.”

“I feel blessed because she was there when all of my children were born,” Regan added. “As soon as she heard I was in labor, she would get to the hospital and wait. She was always one of the first to welcome my children to the world. Watching her hold and love my children for the first time is by far my fondest memory.”