Author Information

Crowds and volunteers from a number of other departments came out on force on a sun-filled Saturday to help Amagansett mark 100 years of organized fire services.

Lawrence A. Nelson, formerly of New York and Sag Harbor, died in Scottsdale, Ariz., on June 22. He was 80 and had been ill with liver and bile duct cancer.

Mr. Nelson was born on June 2, 1934, in Detroit. After graduating from Michigan State University, he moved to New York, where he pursued a career in advertising. While living in Sag Harbor, Mr. Nelson was a member of the East Hampton Tennis Club and the Noyac Golf Club.

He is survived by his wife, Joan Nelson of Scottsdale. Burial will be at the family’s plot in Detroit.

Frank Salvatore LaBarbera of Springs, who was diagnosed with leukemia eight years ago, died at Stony Brook University Hospital on Saturday at the age of 48.

Mr. LaBarbera kept his sense of humor and positive spirit, his family said, despite his health issues. He had juvenile rheumatoid arthritis as a child and astounding resiliency throughout several remissions. In fact, said the family, his almost miraculous recoveries led hospital staff to nickname him Wonder Boy.

Mary A. Steere loved to read, and it was almost a rule that conversation at her Beach Hampton house would not begin on the weekends until 5 p.m. had come and gone. First-time guests could be puzzled by the silence as Ms. Steere and various family members pored through their books, thinking that they had perhaps done something to offend.

The truth was just the opposite. Ms. Steere loved to cook and entertain just as much as she enjoyed her novels, though it was clear that there were distinct times when both where appropriate.