Irene B. Dabrowski
Irene B. Dabrowski, 94, a lifelong resident of Aquebogue, passed away on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023, at Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead.
The daughter of Aniela “Angeline” (Prusinowska) and Mieczyslaw B. “Caesar” Dabrowski, Irene was born, along with her twin sister, Helen, on her grandparents’ farm in Aquebogue on June 10, 1928. Irene attended Aquebogue Grade School and graduated from Riverhead High School in 1946. Following high school, she was employed in a variety of fields, including as a title searcher for an office in Riverhead and as a teller at Franklin Nation Bank (Riverhead branch). For 33 years, she worked at Bridgehampton Tennis & Surf Club, where she had a wide array of duties, including arranging and planting the many flower gardens around the oceanfront site.
Irene loved gardening. Having grown up working on her family’s farm, she continued to grow vegetables and flowers throughout her life, and was looking forward to the flowers that she would plant this year. Other enjoyments were cooking, photography, beaches, travel and music. She was a certified real estate broker and a nurse’s aide. Irene was a member of St. Isidore’s Altar Rosary Society and the Ladies Auxiliary of Riverhead Polish Hall.
According to her niece Lisa A. Dabrowski, Irene’s love of music began at a very early age, when she and Helen would sing Polish folk songs taught to them by their grandmother Ewa Prusinowska. Then, in grade school, their teacher would ask them both to sing to the class every morning before lessons began. Irene’s father encouraged her and each of her siblings to learn an instrument, and in her late teens she traveled with her father into the city, where he bought her an accordion. A few years ago, Lisa brought an accordion to her aunt’s house for her to play her favorites on, once again, and filmed Irene as she sang solo, and in duets with Lisa, those Polish folk songs of long ago.
She was predeceased by her twin sister, Helen, in 2011; sisters Natalie (Marshall Etter), of East Quogue, in 2009, and Julianna (John Boyd), of Alabama, in 1965; and a nephew and a niece. Irene is survived by her sister Eugenia (Stanley Cherouski), of Jamesport; brothers Conrad (Mary Jackowski) and John (Maria Tobiasz), both of Riverhead; as well as many nieces and nephews.
A memorial Mass will be held on what would have been her and her twin’s 95th birthday, Saturday, June 10, at 10 a.m. at St. Isidore’s R.C. Church in Riverhead, with a gathering of family and friends taking place beforehand at the church, starting at 9 a.m. Interment will follow at St. John’s Cemetery in Riverhead.
This is a paid notice.
