Obituaries

Ruth Marie Harkins, an Amagansett native who had been living in Fort Myers Beach, Fla., since retiring from the United States Postal Service, died on Feb. 21 at Joanne’s House at Hope Hospice in Bonita Springs, Fla. She was 90 and had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Dr. Robert Hayes Stackpole of Elizabeth, N.J., and Bluff Road in Amagansett died on Jan. 28 at Trinitas Hospital in Elizabeth. He was 87.

Ian McNeil Cumming, a part-time East Hampton resident, businessman, and member of the national board of the Nature Conservancy and on the Utah State Boards of Regents, died on Feb. 2 at home in Jackson, Wyo., of a prolonged illness.

William B. Fritchman of Brick Kiln Road in Bridgehampton died at home on Jan. 31. He was 95.

Sharon Einsmann of Durham, N.C., died of pulmonary failure there on Monday, at the Treyburn Rehabilitation Center. She was 74 and had been in poor health for some time.

Nancy Ann Reals Perl Benderoth, an artist, designer, and producer of a documentary film that was nominated for an Academy Award, died at her Jericho Road, East Hampton, house on Feb. 6. She was 84.

Donald L. Hunting, whose credentials as an active member of the East Hampton community read almost like a catalog of good citizenship, died on Monday at Southampton Hospital at the age of 90.

Nina Walker Wainwright, a graduate of the Brearley School in Manhattan and of Pine Manor College, outside Boston, died at home on Dunemere Lane in East Hampton Village on Friday after a long illness, her family said. She was 88.

For Sandra Jarvis, her children and grandchildren were her life. The resident of Cosdrew Lane, in Northwest Woods, died on Friday at Stony Brook University Hospital after a brief illness. She was 66.

Barbara Wersba, a Sag Harbor resident who was the author of more than two dozen books for young people and the founder of the Bookman Press, died on Sunday at the Lillian Booth Actors Home in Englewood, N.J. She was 85.

Mary Ellen Thiele Rooney, a writer and photographer with a great sense of adventure who was born in Bridgehampton — and was for many years one of the East End’s inspiring personalities — died at home in Hudson Heights, N.Y., on Feb. 5 after an illness. An indomitable spirit, known to friends as Reggie, she was 83.

Michel Berty, an international businessman and IT pioneer, died at home in Wainscott on Feb. 12 of pulmonary fibrosis. He was 78.

Donald R. Smith of Manhattan and East Hampton died on Nov. 5 of prostate cancer. He was 80.

Giacomo A. Lucente, a World War II Army veteran and a former bartender at the Veterans of Foreign Wars post when it was on Main Street in East Hampton, died of lung disease last Thursday at the age of 90.

Frances Edith Wright Bennett of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., died at home on Feb. 6 of cardiac arrest at the age of 99. Mrs. Bennett was married on Aug. 23, 1939, to Richard Bacon Bennett of Old Saybrook, Conn., who had East Hampton roots, and she had frequently visited here.

Deborah Lee Scheffer of Montauk died unexpectedly on Friday at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital of complications related to childbirth. She was 36. She is survived by her husband, Daniel Scheffer, and the couple’s two sons, Coen, age 4, and Benjamin, a newborn.

Gandolfo Vincent DiBlasi of Manhattan, a renowned lawyer who was known to friends and colleagues as Vince, died on Jan. 14 from complications of pneumonia. He was 64.

Herbert Haucke of Montauk, a partner in an insurance firm in Manhattan that he built into a successful business, died on Feb. 1 at the Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead after a fall. He was 84.

Lisa Anne Hegner Ward, a Montauk woman who was devoted to her church, her children’s schools, and to East Hampton High School’s basketball teams, died at home on Feb. 5. She was 55.

Visiting hours for Mary Ellen Thiele Rooney will be Sunday from 2 to 5 p.m. at Brockett Funeral Home on Hampton Road in Southampton, with a prayer service at 3 p.m.

Burial will be private on Monday at the Sacred Hearts Cemetery in Southampton. A memorial event will be planned in New York City for a later date with details to follow.  

Ms. Rooney, who was known to friends as Reggie, died on Feb. 5 in New York City. She was 83.

Dorothy Marie Avallone, 85, who had worked in upper management at the Stern’s department store in East Hampton, died of congestive heart failure at Casa de la Luz Hospice in Tucson on Jan. 26.

Anne Gibson Clark Washburn of Palm Beach, Fla., and a longtime summer resident of East Hampton, died in Palm Beach on Jan. 28. She was 98.

John Pellegrino, who lived on and off in East Hampton and Springs from the 1970s through the early 2000s, died in Chiang Mai, Thailand, on Jan. 24. He was 76.

Maurice Curran, a telecommunications sales executive who took up beekeeping in retirement, died in his sleep on Dec. 21 in Westchester County. He was 60.

Enid Roth of New York City and Amagansett, who had a long career in television, died on Jan. 27 at the Bristal, an assisted-living facility in Holtsville. She was 87.

Vincent A. D’Angelo of East Hampton died unexpectedly of a heart attack on Jan. 8, while on his way to Sammy’s Beach, where he had gone to hunt. He was 73.

James Robert McCrosson, who ran a real estate development and construction business in the Sag Harbor area, died on Jan. 10 at the Kanas Center for Hospice Care in Quiogue. He was 69.

Leona Needleman, a resident of East Hampton for many years before moving to Pompano Beach, Fla., died in Fort Lauderdale on Jan. 31. She was 86.

Christopher Louis Russo, who was the East Hampton Town highway superintendent for 18 years and had been chief of the Amagansett Fire Department and a founder of its ambulance company, died of congestive heart failure at home in Amagansett on Jan. 31, a few days before his 76th birthday.

Anita Higgins Salembier, a longtime summer resident of Egypt Lane in East Hampton, died on Feb. 1 at home in Locust Valley. Mrs. Salembier was 96.