RIP Christine Conniff Sheahan

It is with a heavy heart that I write that my mentor, Christine Conniff Sheahan, has died.

A few decades ago, fresh out of college, I knocked on the door of a woman who was starting a magazine to champion women business leaders in New York, and asked if she was hiring. She was kind enough to invite me into her company, train me how to approach business leaders, how to photograph them, and how to put together an entire magazine. She introduced me to legends such as Gloria Steinem, Mickie Siebert, Matilda Cuomo, Christie Brinkley, Ellie Guggenheim and Hillary Clinton. Ahead of her time, she gave me assignments to write about the green industry in 2007, before it green was the new black. She took me under her wing in extraordinary ways, and then gave me the wings to fly as a journalist, expressing her constant confidence in me.

As a publisher and editor-in-chief of Networking magazine, she was one of the first to cover the tragedies and triumphs of breast cancer on Long Island and New York, one of the hotbeds of the dreaded disease. She championed those fighting for longer hospital stays to prevent “drive by mastectomies” and to promote better healthcare and research.

She also created the David Awards that honored the men (such as David Salten, Michael Dowling, Ed Travagliante) who were doing right by business women, and who were contributing to the world in greater ways, elevating their progressive, and good deeds through an Oscar-esq grand ceremony (each lovingly pinned with a rose on their lapel, which they often wore the entire day long.)

She was an incredibly gifted portrait artist - her art of Susan Lucci (All My Children) often was shown at the start of the soap opera, her portrait of Army Chief of Staff General Dennis Joe Reimer hangs in the Pentagon. (I remember her days of painting it - how she’d lock herself in her study for hours, for days, living and breathing her art, studying every angle, until a portrait of his likeness as well as his spirit seemed to glow out from the canvas.)

She used her gift for art and portraits she she photographed the women for the cover of Networking magazine. She made it a point to find a person’s best angles, and often took the best photo of their lives for the cover.

She never took a salary from the magazine, but she was recognized around the world, and invited to cover women’s conferences in Europe and Asia and her mailbox was always filled with engraved invitations from ever corner of society. Photos and awards seemed to tile the walls of the Networking office. For her work, she was recognized by legislators, Congresswomen, won multiple awards including the National Council on Women’s Health Making a Difference through Media Award; Top 50 Women on Long Island, Women’s Hall of Fame Award, and others that I can’t remember.

She made herself available, learning from each person, and approachable through her editor’s letters and her warm and deep phone conversations. Her lilting voice made you smile, her laugh was contagious, and her advice was priceless.

"Stop speaking with such a soft voice on the phone," she told me when I was a young editorial assistant. "Make sure people hear you and understand what you're saying."

Years later, after my career with her had opened a few doors:

“You’re a big wig editor now, but make sure you always write,” she told me once with a smirk. “It’s important.”

I listened.

She had strength and wit, and you felt her presence in the room.

She was the granddaughter of Lucy Conniff, who was the first woman state legislator in Connecticut.

In her youth, she was a beauty queen and the daughter of the casting director of Laurel and Hardy and an actress. She majored in art at Marymount, became a graphic artist at The New Yorker, married legendary New York journalist Denis Sheahan and built the Sheahan publishing dynasty, cofounded in 1981 (House magazine, Builder and Remodeler, etc.)

But despite all of her success, she never lost touch with those who mattered to her, and her beloved family, including her sons, Denis and Andrew Sheahan and "darling grand babies."

I don’t think I will ever forget her laughter, or the way she’d look at you when she wanted to be serious yet lighthearted, Or the light of love in her eyes when she looked at her sons. Or the respect she would carry for strong women. Or the way she'd move dialogues forward on Long Island and New York City.

She made an incredible but quiet impact on the United States, and my life: gave me courage to find my own strength, and gave me confidence toward my career. It was through a press pass from her magazine that I first stepped into the United Nations and shook Kofi Anann's hand, and covered women’s tribunals and learned about the Taliban before most knew who they were, or sat to interview celebrities and researched environmental issues. Her small but mighty magazine's influence carried like ripples on the water, landing in select mailboxes of the who’s who in the United States. I witnessed the power of the pen when suddenly, discussions began to happen and legislature began to move forward. And yet, she’d never boast of her own greatness, or publicly try to wield her power… she’d just allow it to blaze forward and light the way for others to follow, continuing to influence in the most altruistic of ways.

Rest in Peace, Christine Conniff Sheahan. You will surely be missed.

Details of her life celebration below:

https://www.tributearchive.com/.../christine-conniff-sheahan

Christine Conniff Sheahan, age 82 of Remsenburg, passed away on May 5, 2022. Beloved mother of Denis and the Late Andrew and stepsons Dimitris and George Niflis. Loving grandmother of two. A visitation will be held on Thursday, May 12, 2022 from 2:00-4:00 PM & 7:00-9:00 PM, at Werner-Rothwell Funeral Home, 60 Mill Road, Westhampton Beach, NY. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Friday, May 13, 2022, time is pending, at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Westhampton Beach. A private cremation will follow.