Sister Margaret Smyth, founder of the North Fork Spanish Apostolate, dies at 83

Sister Margaret Smyth, a towering figure among Latino immigrants on the East End called the "Mother Teresa of Long Island" by a community leader, has died. 

Smyth, 83, who worked in inner-city schools in Brooklyn for decades before founding the North Fork Spanish Apostolate, died Monday at her apartment in Riverhead of apparent heart problems, church officials said.

Her nonstop work in Suffolk County during a quarter-century took her to farms, vineyards and restaurants, as well as courtrooms, police stations and legislative hearings, with some street protests thrown in along the way.

Underlying it was her Catholic faith, as she organized prayer groups, processions and Masses that packed churches.

“I really believe that Margaret is a legend, not only on Long Island but beginning in Brooklyn,” said Sister Peggy McVetty, the prioress, or head, of the Dominican Sisters of Amityville, the religious order to which Smyth belonged. “I am sure that you will hear the word saint.”

She started her ministry at a time of escalating tensions in Suffolk County, as growing attacks on Latino immigrants culminated in the 2008 hate crime murder of Marcelo Lucero in Patchogue.

Smyth helped hundreds of immigrants find jobs, locate housing, get an education, recover owed wages and resolve immigration issues — all with a mix of old-school straight talk, Irish wit, and a disarming sense of humor, colleagues said.

Her death provoked an outpouring of grief among immigrants, church workers and even police, with some Latino men showing up on Monday in tears at St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church in Riverhead, said the Rev. Lawrence Duncklee, pastor of the church.

Sandra Dunn, associate director of the Hispanic advocacy group OLA Eastern Long Island, recalled meeting Smyth for the first time in the early 2000s.

“It was clear she was a powerhouse then and she continued to be so until the day she died,” Dunn said. “She was an institution."

Challenging figures of authority and social injustice

Smyth, who had suffered heart problems for the past few years, apparently died in her sleep Monday morning, according to relatives and colleagues. Parish workers went to check on her Monday after she did not show up for work.

“Sr. Margaret Smyth was a magnificent blend of immigration services counselor, spiritual director, friend and advocate,” said Bishop John Barres, head of the Diocese of Rockville Centre. “She was a true champion of our Hispanic families on the East End. Her presence will be deeply missed there and beyond.”

David J. Hegemiller, chief of the Riverhead Police Department, said he served with Smyth on the local anti-bias task force.

“Sister Margaret was a true asset to our community here in Riverhead as well as the entire North Fork,” he said. “Her love and compassion for her fellow human beings was evident in everything she did. Her tireless commitment and limitless energy to helping people was a gift from God and she will surely be missed.”

Despite the praise from high-level officials in the church and elsewhere, Smyth often challenged figures of authority and social injustice, said Darren Sandow, a former executive director of the nonprofit Hagedorn Foundation.

“She never hesitated to stand up to bishops, police and elected officials,” Sandow said. She would take on contractors, too, demanding they pay owed wages to immigrant workers. In return, she often received threats from the contractors, he said, but never backed down.

“She was a fearless warrior,” he said.

When a 2009 report produced by Sandow’s organization and the Southern Poverty Law Center about Suffolk police brutality against Latino immigrants came out, Smyth was at the news conference, denouncing the abuse, he said.

At a Long Island Jobs for Justice human rights awards ceremony in 2013 where Smyth was honored, group leader Richard Koubek called her “the Mother Teresa of Long Island” — a title that spurred her strenuous objections, he said.

'They clearly loved her and she loved them'

Koubek first met Smyth in the late 1990s, when she brought him and others to an abandoned farmhouse packed with 40 Mexican migrant workers.

The place had no electricity — just an extension cord running from a nearby garage. She was delivering inflatable mattresses.

“They had no furniture, no electricity, but they had her,” Koubek said in an interview. “They clearly loved her and she loved them. She would give out holy cards and rosary beads but she also got them those blowup mattresses so they could sleep on something.”

Smyth grew up in Queens, the child of two Irish immigrants, and attended Catholic schools. Her mother had tried to enter the convent in Ireland, but her parents blocked her, recalled Smyth’s sister, Ann Marie Ezzo of Malverne.

So when Smyth announced at the end of high school she wanted to become a nun, her parents were thrilled, Ezzo said.

She entered the Sisters of St. Dominic in 1957 at the age of 17. By 1959, she was starting a nearly four-decade career teaching and serving as a principal in Catholic schools in Brooklyn and Queens.

They were not always easy areas to work in, her relatives said.

“She had cars stolen out of her driveway, she heard bullets flying in the middle of the night, and never thought twice about leaving,” said a niece, Kristina O’Leary of Garden City.

By 1996, she took a short sabbatical to work with migrants in San Antonio, and then started the Spanish Apostolate. She had majored in Spanish at St. John’s University, and later earned two master's degrees from Fordham University, in urban education and religious education.

Her street smarts and charm allowed her to connect with so many people on so many levels, from the poorest of the poor to the heads of corporations, colleagues said.

“Anybody who ever worked with her is forever changed,” Koubek said.

Besides Ezzo and O’Leary, her survivors include six nephews, three great nephews and four great nieces.

A wake is planned for Wednesday from 7 to 9 p.m. at St. John the Evangelist, Smyth's home church. There will be a second session on Thursday morning at 10:15 a.m., followed by a funeral Mass at 11 a.m.