Former New York Rep. Carolyn McCarthy laid to rest on Long Island
Longtime former Long Island Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, who died in June, will be laid to rest on Long Island on Tuesday.
Visitation is underway in Garden City, the heart of New York's 4th Congressional District. A service will be held at 6 p.m. before a private burial.
McCarthy dies at 81 after battle with lung cancer
McCarthy, a Mineola mom and nurse, transformed tragedy into public service. She was thrust into the spotlight in 1993 when her husband was killed and her son, Kevin, was gravely injured in a massacre on a Long Island Rail Road train. She nursed her son back from a grim diagnosis and won nine terms in the House.
Her last interview was with CBS News New York in June 2023 for our documentary "The 5:33," marking 30 years since the shooting that drove her to run for Congress and unseat her representative who opposed what McCarthy called common-sense gun laws.
"Anything I could do to make sure this doesn't happen to anybody else, I will give my life to do that," she said at the time. "[Gun violence is] cancer. And if you don't pay attention of cancer in the early, it's going to spread to every little town in this country."
She faced a lung cancer diagnosis in 2013 with her trademark resilience and lived to age 81, determined to make a difference until the end.
McCarthy remembered as "the embodiment of bipartisanship"
Admirers from both sides of the political aisle are remembering McCarthy as a woman who devoted her life to serving her family, patients and the nation.
"She wanted to get control of the guns so no one else would be killed like her husband," relative Diane Delbello said.
"Getting laws passed to make other people safe," said Joyce Gorycki, whose husband was also killed in the massacre.
"I don't know of a single other member of Congress who has been able to take that tragedy and turn that grief into something not just redeeming for themselves, but for the entire country," former congressman Hon. Steve Israel said.
Rep. Laura Gillen, who currently occupies McCarthy's former congressional seat, views her predecessor as a trailblazer.
"A normal mother living her life saw something that she thought needed to be fixed, got involved. That's what inspired me," Gillen said.
Some of her treasured mementos of a full life, like t-shirts and hats, were given away to mourners.
Former President Bill Clinton, Gov. Kathy Hochul and former Republican Rep. Pete King will be speaking at Tuesday's service.
As one staffer put it, McCarthy was the embodiment of bipartisanship in life and beyond.
McCarthy's family asked that in lieu of flowers, memorial donations be made to and .
