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Doris G. Franzone, 88

Doris G. Franzone, 88

By
Star Staff

Doris Geneva Franzone died at home in Montauk on Aug. 23, surrounded by her family. She was 88 and had developed heart disease six months ago.

Ms. Franzone met her future husband, Lawrence Franzone, in New York City when she was working at Stouffer’s restaurant, in the financial district, and he was working at AT&T and would have lunch there. They married in 1951 and moved to Montauk in 1958, when AT&T transferred him to the South Fork. Her father-in-law had bought two lots in Montauk right after the war for $100 each. The young couple “put up a little Cape Cod house,” Ms. Franzone was quoted as saying in her husband’s obituary.

They built Montauk Beer and Soda in 1976, and she ran it for the first 15 years, until her husband retired. Mr. Franzone died in 2015.

In addition to working at Montauk Beer and Soda, Mrs. Franzone enjoyed sailing, going to yard sales, crochet, and reading. She was also an active member of the Montauk Community Church, dedicated to helping run the sales there.

She was born in Greenfield, Mass., one of five children of the former Ruth Howes and George Leukhardt. Her siblings all died before her. She grew up and went to school in Massachusetts. Her children, Vincent Franzone and Audine Franzone, both of Montauk, survive, as do three grandchildren. Ms. Franzone was cremated. Half the ashes were buried next to her husband’s at Fort Hill Cemetery; the other half will be dispersed at a later date.

The family received visitors at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton on Aug. 28, followed by a funeral service conducted by the Rev. Bill Hoffmann of the Montauk Community Church.

The family has suggested memorial contributions to the Montauk Fire Department’s scholarship fund, 12 Flamingo Avenue, Montauk 11954.

Miriam Hammer, 103

Miriam Hammer, 103

April 30, 1914 - Oct. 10, 2017
By
Star Staff

Miriam Hammer was “perky and loving to the end,” according to her family. An exceptional cook who lived with her family on Gardiner’s Bay in Springs, she often presided over a dinner table of 20, as well as “clambakes and beach parties galore,” her daughter, Elizabeth Cafiso of East Hampton, said.

Mrs. Hammer died on Oct. 10 at the age of 103. A native of North Adams, Mass., she loved East Hampton and planted roots here, becoming involved in politics and other affairs and advocating care of the environment. 

She and her husband, Frank Hammer, who died in 1972, built their house on the water in 1949. The couple had three children, and the family shared idyllic summers of fishing, swimming, and boating, using “every kind of a boat from a canoe to a Boston Whaler,” Ms. Cafiso said. After Mr. Hammer retired, they divided their time between Florida, where he became a boat captain and worked with his sons, and the East End, where they eventually bought a house on Abraham’s Path. 

For a time the Hammers lived close to the late Pierre Franey, a renowned chef, but her family always believed she was the better cook. She was known for her seafood dishes as well as apple pie and two-foot-long prime rib roasts. 

She loved to read, spent hours doing crossword puzzles, and was an expert at knitting, sewing, and crocheting, supplying her family with wearable art for years. She was a great Yankees fan, attending games at Yankee Stadium or listening to them on the radio. 

Born on April 30, 1914,  a daughter of Emil and Anna Coleman, who had immigrated from Finland, she moved to New York City, where she met her future husband. She worked as a nurse’s aide, and he was a New York City fireman and mason who worked with his father building schools and municipal buildings. The couple married in 1935.

A member of Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton, where the family celebrated many weddings and baptisms, Mrs. Hammer had a phrase she repeated during a family crisis: “Get the Hail Marys going,” she would say. 

Two sisters died before her, as did a son, Frank Hammer Jr., in 2011. In addition to her daughter, known as Betty, she is survived by another son, Edward Hammer of Gulf Shores, Ala. Eight grandchildren also survive, as do 11 great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren.

A Mass will be said on Saturday at 11 a.m. at Most Holy Trinity, the Rev. Ryan Creamer presiding. Burial will follow at Most Holy Trinity Cemetery on Cedar Street in East Hampton, where there will be a graveside service.

Peter V. Tishman, 85, Real Estate Developer

Peter V. Tishman, 85, Real Estate Developer

Jan. 12, 1932 - Aug. 26, 2017
By
Star Staff

Peter Valentine Tishman, a member of a family that is synonymous with New York City real estate, died on Aug. 26 at Stony Brook University Hospital. He was 85 and had progressive supranuclear palsy for four years. A resident of Manhattan, he spent weekends and the summer months in East Hampton, where he owned a house on Georgica Pond.

The son of Rita Valentine Tishman and Norman Tishman, he was born in Manhattan on Jan. 12, 1932. He graduated from the Horace Mann School for Boys in 1949 and went on to St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y.,  graduating in 1953 with a bachelor’s degree in history and government. Three months later Mr. Tishman enlisted in the Army, and was assigned to the Army Corps of Engineers, attached to the Air Force. He served in Korea at a forward fighter base in Taigu, then transferred to a Strategic Air Command bomber base on Guam.  After 18 months overseas, he was discharged in September 1955 as a corporal.

He married the former Ellen Morse in 1956. She died in 1973. The following year, he married Judith Rothenberg, who died in 1989. On May 31, 1992, he married Lynn Perkins, who survives.

Like his father before him, Mr. Tishman made real estate his life. He joined the family company, Tishman Realty and Construction, in 1955, and worked there until 1968. In January 1969, a few years after his father’s death, he resigned from the company to head his own firm, Peter Tishman Real Estate, where he put his knowledge of real estate, detail, and design to good use, on projects in Manhattan, Minneapolis, New Orleans, and other cities around the country. 

Within the New York community, Mr. Tishman served on the boards of Citymeals on Wheels, the Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association of Greater New York, and the Neuropathy Association. He was also on the board of governors of the Real Estate Board of New York and a member of the National Association of Real Estate Boards.

The Tishman house on Georgica Pond was designed by Eugene Futterman and built by Pat Trunzo in 1980. The first shingle-style house built since the early 1900s, it was featured in The East Hampton Star in 2002 and is pictured in the definitive book “East Hampton’s Heritage.” 

Mr. Tishman was passionate about boats and was rarely without one. He owned a number of sailboats and a 24-foot Thompson motorboat, but his family said his favorite was a 12-foot wooden, gaff-rigged, Beetle Cat with a green hull and tanbark sail, appropriately named Pete’s Sake. The boat was instantly recognizable, the only one on Georgica Pond with a reddish sail. Until the age of 80, he raced it every Saturday at 3 p.m. in July and August. “Sail Fast, Live Slow,” he was often heard to say. From 1994 to 2009, the Tishmans hosted a Labor Day Weekend Round the Pond regatta party.

Travel was also important. With his wife, Mr. Tishman visited the Galapagos, Africa, Indonesia, Asia, South America, Egypt, Dubai, Costa Rica, the Caribbean, and most of the European nations. He took photographs all along the way, a hobby he began as a child, when he had his own darkroom in the family apartment. 

His collection of European and American vintage cars, mostly from the 1940s and ’50s, was another passion. He enjoyed buying, restoring, maintaining, and driving them, particularly a 1948 Plymouth Woodie, which he finally sold in 2014. Whether on Main Street in East Hampton or parked at Georgica Beach, the Woodie always attracted attention.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Tishman is survived by his children, Steven Tishman and Linda Tishman of Manhattan and Anita Tishman Winkler of Pound Ridge, N.Y. He leaves six grandchildren.

Rabbi Joshua Franklin of the Jewish Center of the Hamptons officiated on Aug. 28 at Shaarey Pardes Accabonac Grove Cemetery in Springs. The family received visitors afterward at the Georgica house. The day after, Rabbi Joshua M. Davidson of Temple Emanu-El presided over a memorial service at Frank E. Campbell in Manhattan, followed by a reception at the Carlyle Hotel.

Memorial donations have been suggested for Cure PSP, online at PSP.org.

Donald Swanton

Donald Swanton

By
Star Staff

A funeral Mass for Donald Swanton of Dayton Lane, East Hampton, who died at Southampton Hospital on Sept. 23 at the age of 69, will be celebrated on Tuesday at 11 a.m. at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton. Burial will be at St. John’s Cemetery in Queens. 

An obituary for him will appear in a future issue.

For William Havens Jr.

For William Havens Jr.

By
Star Staff

Visiting hours for William E. Havens Jr., an Amagansett bayman who had been a passionate advocate for commercial fishermen and who died on Sept. 28 in Boca Raton, Fla., after a series of illnesses, will be tomorrow at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton from 7 to 9 p.m.

A graveside service will take place at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at Oak Grove Cemetery on Windmill Lane in Amagansett. 

An obituary for Mr. Havens will appear in a future issue.

Josie Kalbacher, 57

Josie Kalbacher, 57

March 21, 1960 - Sept. 29, 2017
By
Star Staff

Josie Kalbacher of Springs-Fireplace Road in Springs, who spent her final days surrounded by friends and family, died at home on Sept. 29 from the complications of brain cancer, which had been diagnosed three years ago. She was 57.

Ms. Kalbacher was born in Bayport on March 21, 1960, one of three children of Patrick and Joan Smith, who survive. She graduated from Bayport High School in 1978.

Her family said she loved the ocean, both in East Hampton and at the family home in Puerto Rico. She also enjoyed long bike rides to Montauk with her husband of 27 years, John Kalbacher, who survives, as well as skiing with her family in Vermont. They said her “laughter was infectious,” and would “normally be preceded by a devilish twinkle in her eyes.”

Ms. Kalbacher was known as a “phenomenal cook whose sumptuous meals were the bedrock” of their holiday gatherings, and a “gifted gardener,” who “could turn any barren space into . . . glorious colors and beautiful plants in perfect harmony,” her family said.

In addition to the “unconditional love with which she nurtured and guided” her sons, she loved the creatures “who were lucky enough to wander into her welcoming home,” they said. She also was a committed friend, who often could be seen at the East Hampton Library, and “a shining example to others of how to live . . . could find beauty in the brutal, light in the darkest moments, and laughter through the tears.” 

In addition to her parents and husband, her sons, Kelly Kalbacher of East Hampton and Colton Kalbacher of Boulder, survive, as do a brother, Patrick Smith of Destin, Fla., and a sister, Donna Smith of Pismo Beach, Calif. 

On Saturday, from 1 to 5 p.m., the family will welcome visitors at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton. A reading and service will be held there at 3. Ms. Kalbacher was cremated. The family has suggested memorial donations to the Defeat GBM Research Collaborative of the National Brain Tumor Society, 55 Chapel Street, Suite 200, Newton, Mass. 02458.

Richard L. Morris Sr., SoHo Developer

Richard L. Morris Sr., SoHo Developer

May 11, 1930 - Sept. 26, 2017
By
Star Staff

Richard Lee Morris Sr., a pioneering developer of SoHo properties in Manhattan who spent summers for more than 50 years at the Montauk Shores Condominium, died on Sept. 26 at Stony Brook University Hospital. He was 87. The cause of death was heart disease, his family said.

Mr. Morris was remembered as a strong force in his family. His love of Montauk began on camping trips to Hither Hills State Park and the campground at Ditch Plain before the condominium was organized. His family said his days in Montauk were filled with swimming and sailing, body surfing, biking, hikes, bonfires, and festive lobster dinners on the family’s deck. He and his wife, the former Anne Elizabeth Davis, and their six children kept a horse at Montauk’s Deep Hollow Ranch. 

He also was an enthusiastic reader of The New York Times and Investor’s Business Daily and would send clippings he thought relevant to his children.

He was born in Brooklyn on May 11, 1930, to Leon Morris and the former Miriam Arkin. He attended the Poly Prep Country Day School in Brooklyn, where he played football. He received a degree in textile engineering from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, where he and Ms. Davis met.

After they were married, the couple moved to Rockville Centre, and Mr. Morris went to work in the family textile business, Denemark and Morris, a company for which he had been trained but that he eventually transformed into a ­real estate investment firm.

He is survived by his children, Deborah Lee Morris, Richard Lee Morris Jr., and Alison Elizabeth Morris of Atlanta, Lee Anne Lightfoot of Houston, Scott Morris of Albany, and Eric Morris of East Hampton, 12 grandchildren, and 4 great-grandchildren.

Mr. Morris was cremated. His ashes will be dispersed at his Montauk residence overlooking the ocean.

Richard W. McGowin, Public Safety Advocate

Richard W. McGowin, Public Safety Advocate

March 21, 1929 - Sept. 28, 2017
By
Star Staff

Richard W. McGowin, a former Montauk Fire Department chief and commissioner who served on the Suffolk Fire and Rescue Services oversight board for more than 30 years, died on Sept. 28 at the Hamptons Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Southampton. He was 88.

Mr. McGowin’s involvement with firefighting and public safety began when he joined the North Sea Fire Department as a young man. After he moved to Montauk in 1953, he switched departments, serving as its chief twice and later being elected to the Montauk Fire District Board of Commissioners, of which he was a member for 20 years, five of them as its chairman. In addition he was the head of emergency preparedness for East Hampton Town for more than 25 years.

His daughter, Terri J. Gaines of East Hampton, said that he was interested in the safety of firefighters as well as of the public. He pushed for the creation of a townwide hazardous materials team and brought in Red Cross disaster training and shelter management training, roles that harked back to his service with the civil defense during World War II, when he was too young to follow his brothers into military service.

He was born on March 21, 1929, in Southampton to J. Arthur McGowin and the former Estelle Whitman. He attended public school in Southampton, graduating from high school there in 1947. He graduated from the State University at Farmingdale in 1950 with an associate’s degree in landscape design.

He married H. Jane Sanford on Feb. 11, 1951. She died in 1996.

Early in his adult life, Mr. McGowin worked for Global Aircraft and Republic Aircraft on Long Island. Once he moved east, he started and ran McGowin’s Landscape and the Montauk Garden Center.

Ms. Gaines said her father was concerned about the welfare of residents and visitors to East Hampton during hurricanes and winter northeasters and sought to improve ties and communication with county, state, and federal emergency agencies. 

He was an accomplished athlete, she said, playing football and basketball and going on to take part in New York Knicks practices and play with a New York Giants farm team. The family had a stock car that they raced at the Riverhead Raceway on weekends. He played men’s softball in the summer leagues and sailed. He also raced iceboats on Mecox Bay; Ms. Gaines said that she believed this was his favorite pastime of all.

In addition to Ms. Gaines, he is survived by 4 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.

A firematic service for Mr. McGowin was held on Oct. 1 at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton, where a Masonic service was held the next day. His funeral there on Oct. 3 was officiated by the Rev. Bill Hoffmann of the Montauk Community Church. Burial was at Fort Hill Cemetery in Montauk.

His family suggested memorial donations to the Hamptons Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing Recreational Therapy Department, 64 County Road 39, Southampton 11968; the Red Cross of Southampton, 116 Route 27A, Southampton; the Friends of Long Island Horticulture, P.O. Box 964, Riverhead 11901, or to any local fire department or ambulance corps.

Bonnie Jacobson, Therapist and Author

Bonnie Jacobson, Therapist and Author

Jan. 5, 1943 - Sept. 30, 2017
By
Star Staff

Bonnie Jacobson, a therapist in private practice in Manhattan for more than 40 years and an adjunct professor of applied psychology at New York University, died at the age of 74 at Lenox Hill Hospital on Sept. 30 after a long illness. She had been a part-time Springs resident for many years.

Dr. Jacobson was a founder of the New York Institute for Psychological Change and a founding member of ELEM, a charitable organization for Israeli youth. She created and endowed a psychology program for N.Y.U. interns, providing psychological help for students in underserved public schools.

In addition to her active practice and involvement at N.Y.U., Dr. Jacobson found time to write seven self-help books, among them “The Shy Single,” “Love Triangles,” “Choose to Be Happily Married,” and “If Only You Would Listen,” written with Guy Kettelhack. She also reviewed books for The East Hampton Star and had been interviewed regularly on radio, television, and in newspapers and magazines.

She was born in Philadelphia on Jan. 5, 1943, one of three children of the former Rose Andress and Charles Singer. She grew up there, graduating from Northeast High School. She received a bachelor’s degree from Temple University in Philadelphia and her Ph.D. from N.Y.U.

Dr. Jacobson was first married to Len Jacobson, whose surname she used and with whom she had two sons. She and her second husband, Arie Shapira, to whom she was married for many years, bought a house in the Clearwater area of Springs. 

She was a member of an orthodox Jewish congregation in New York City, Kehilath Jeshurun, as well as the Jewish Center of the Hamptons, and also attended Chabad services. She had family members all over the country, and  in Europe and Israel, and visited them as often as possible.

A friend, colleague, and Springs neighbor, Bonnie Maslin, said, “Anyone who knew Bonnie encountered her openness and inclusiveness, which often meant an invitation to a yoga session or a Torah class or a night at the theater, a swim in her pool, or a seat at her Shabbat dinner table.” 

 Dr. Jacobson’s “many patients found emotional solace and healing through her ministrations,” Dr. Maslin said, adding that she would be remembered “for her red hair, her warm smile, her energy and contagious enthusiasm for living, but above all . . . for her abundant loving-kindness.” 

She is survived by her sons, Brad Jacobson of California and Eric Jacobson of Vermont, in addition to her husband. Her mother, Rose Singer, and a sister, Suzanne Stutman, both of Washington, D.C., also survive, as do a brother, Raymond Singer of Santa Fe, N.M., her grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews.

She was buried on Oct. 2 next to her father in a cemetery near Philadelphia where a graveside service was held. Those who wish to attend a memorial that is being planned can learn of the details by going to legacy.com.

Corrections: Ms. Jacobson did not die of brain cancer, as an earlier version of her obituary stated. Also, her husband's name is Arie Shapira, not Arie Shapiro, and her brother, Raymond Singer lives in New Mexico, not Manhattan.

Thomas Leo, 80

Thomas Leo, 80

Nov. 28, 1936 - Oct. 14, 2017
By
Star Staff

Thomas J. Leo, a character actor and comedian, died on Saturday at the Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead of complications of late-stage dementia. He was 80.

Mr. Leo’s theater work in New York City included playing a beggar in “The Threepenny Opera” at Lincoln Center and a small part in Woody Allen’s “Stardust Memories.” He had roles with the Los Angeles Shakespeare Festival in “A Comedy of Errors” and in a musical version of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” On the South Fork, he often had roles in the performances of the Community Theater Company, Dark Horse Productions, and the Southampton Players.

Among other theater work, he appeared in a controversial feminist showcase at Westbeth and had a part in “More Than You Deserve,” a critical musical by Michael Weller about the Vietnam War directed by Joe Papp. Mr. Leo said in a 1996 interview for The Star that he and the actress Mary Beth Hurt, who met at Westbeth, performed all over Vietnam and had 27 death scenes among them. It was his first Equity role.

Mr. Leo first came to East Hampton in 1983, living in Northwest Woods with his partner, Michael O’Neill. He worked at BookHampton for many years. They had met in the city when they both stopped to pet the same dog near Gracie Mansion, he told the interviewer in 1996.

His was an accidental acting and comedy path; a friend in the early 1970s had suggested he give theater a try. This led to a time with the Off-Center Theater, which gave free performances of updated fairy tales for adults and children. His interest in the arts came earlier, however. 

As a boy growing up in Teaneck, N.J., he listened to Metropolitan Opera performances on the radio. When he was a little older, he began enjoying its live performances on his own.

In East Hampton, he was a member of an informal group that read the entire works of Shakespeare — twice.

He was born on Nov. 28, 1936, at Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck to Maurice M. Leo and the former Mary Trincelita. After graduating from high school in New Jersey, he received an English and philosophy degree from the University of Toronto. Coming back to the States, he became a teacher, first at St. Cecilia’s High School in Englewood, N.J., then at St. David’s School in Manhattan. 

He and Mr. O’Neill moved to East Hampton when Mr. O’Neill took a job as a chef at a new restaurant. They lived in a house that Mr. O’Neill mostly built himself, with pets that included three geese, chickens, dogs, and rabbits.

In addition to Mr. O’Neill, Mr. Leo is survived by his siblings, John Leo of Manhattan, Maryann Napoli of Brooklyn, Peter Leo of Pittsburg, Virginia Kruger of Lakeville, Conn., and by many nieces, nephews, and grand-nieces and grand-nephews.

A memorial service will be announced.