Rigney Cunningham
October 21, 1946 – October 24, 2022

D. Rigney Cunningham, 76, resident of East Orleans, Massachusetts, passed away on October 24 from pancreatic cancer.

Born October 21, 1946, in Watchung, New Jersey, she is survived by her husband Robert Cunningham, her daughter Caitlin, her son-in-law Tim Correira, granddaughter Margot, and sister Melinda Rigney.

During a lifetime too full to condense into a paragraph, she graduated from St. Lawrence University, where she was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma, worked as a schoolteacher in California, and as a political volunteer and a hospital administrator in Washington, D.C.

In 1982, after the birth of Caitlin, Rigney and Robert moved to Wellesley, Massachusetts. Rigney was the Vice President of Public Relations at Newton-Wellesley Hospital, where she led missions to aid victims of domestic abuse, and she was instrumental in pushing for seat belt state legislation. For fifteen years, her last and proudest professional position, she acted as the Executive Director of the Hospice & Palliative Care Federation of Massachusetts and is still referred to by many as the “Queen of Hospice.” In Rigney’s last days, several hospice staff told the family that it was an honor to care for her at the end of her life.

In her life, she hiked Kilimanjaro, walked the paths of Macchu Picchu, climbed Mayan temples, and saw King Tut’s tomb. She’s ridden camels in Egypt and elephants in India, swam with manatees in Florida and sat in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales covered in wild red parrots that chuckled in her ear. She galloped on quarter horses in Montana, stomped and hollered through DC at the Million Mom March, walked miles through Italy on a broken foot, took a river boat painted with tigers down the Brahmaputra River, and flew in a hot air balloon over Myanmar at sunrise. Everywhere she went, she talked to strangers like old friends, collected art, and returned with stories. She lived big.

In lieu of flowers, please submit donations in Rigney’s name to the Visiting Nurses Association of Cape Cod.

Visiting hours will be held on Thursday, October 27, 4:00-6:00pm at Nickerson Funeral Home, 77 Eldredge Park Way, Orleans, Massachusetts. A Celebration of Life will take place at a later date, with details to be shared in the near future.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.nickersonfunerals.com.