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Oneda Dixon, 101

Oneda Dixon, 101

1914 - Oct. 2, 2015
By
Star Staff

Oneda P. Dixon of East Hampton lived to be 101 years old, all the while remaining active in her church and the East Hampton Town Senior Citizens Center and touching the lives of four generations of survivors.

Her secret to a long life, said her daughter, Jacquolen Glover, was prayer. “She did a lot of walking when she was younger, and that helped her stamina too, I think, but she would tell you, ‘Look unto the Lord.’ That would be her answer,” Ms. Glover said.

Mrs. Dixon, who had lived on the South Fork since 1963, died on Oct. 2 at Southampton Hospital. She was well known here. “You epitomize what our community is all about,” East Hampton Village Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. told her last year on her 100th birthday, Feb. 15, which was proclaimed by town and village officials as Oneda Dixon Day.

Born Oneda P. Turner in 1914, she was one of eight children of Claude Turner and Daisy Chambers. She grew up in Iredell County, N.C., and after finishing high school moved to Washington, D.C., where she and Ollie Dixon met. They were married in 1956 and came to East Hampton when Mr. Dixon was offered a job as a chauffeur. His wife found work as a housekeeper, and they raised their three sons and three daughters by working alternating days and nights so that one parent would always be at home. Mr. Dixon died in 1995.

“She was very loving, very giving. We grew up a church family. She raised us to know right from wrong, and she worked most of her life so that we could have,” Ms. Glover said. “She taught us how to work, be able to commit to a job, so that we could be able to be on our own.”

Mrs. Dixon was a member of the Calvary Baptist Church in East Hampton for more than 20 years, and taught Sunday school there for a time. She later became a member of the Triune Baptist Church. Ms. Glover said her mother could often be seen studying her Bible and reading a book called “Praying the Bible: The Pathway to Spirituality.” Her mother, she said, was “a blessing.”

Mrs. Dixon loved to dance, sing in the church choir, read, and listen to Christian music. Her daughter recalled Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays when all the generations would gather to celebrate with the eldest family member, the matriarch. “It was a great feeling. You really don’t see that today. It was a joy for her,” Ms. Glover said. “The younger ones, I believe, kept her going. You know how children keep that spirit in you alive? I think that’s what happened to her. That gave her long life and pleasure to have them around.”

Mrs. Dixon was preceded in death by all seven of her siblings and five of her six children. In addition to her daughter, who lives in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., she is survived by five grandchildren. They are Angeletta Pilson and Riccardio Smith, both of East Hampton; Pamela Pilson of New York City, Kathy Queen of Prince George’s County, Md., and Kim Baran of Temecula, Calif. Ten great-grandchildren and seven great-great-grandchildren survive as well.

A funeral Mass was said on Oct. 7 at Triune Baptist Church in Sag Harbor. Burial followed at Cedar Lawn Cemetery in East Hampton.

 

 

Margaret F. D’Andrea, World War II Nurse

Margaret F. D’Andrea, World War II Nurse

Oct. 14, 1921 - Oct. 6, 2015
By
Star Staff

Margaret F. D’Andrea, an Army Air Corps nurse during World War II who was later an active community volunteer in Wainscott and beyond, died on Oct. 6 at Midtown Senior Living in Raleigh, N.C., just eight days shy of her 94th birthday. She had had two strokes in the last few years and had been ill for about 11 months.

Mrs. D’Andrea enlisted in 1942, shortly after she graduated from St. Mary’s Hospital School of Nursing in Brooklyn. She served as a combat nurse with Gen. Claire Lee Chennault’s Flying Tigers in the Asiatic Theater, and was discharged as a first lieutenant. Her family said she liked to tell stories of “flying over the hump,” by which she meant the Himalayas, with a parachute and a carbine, neither of which, she would say, she knew how to use.

She was born on Oct. 14, 1921, to James Faye and the former Margaret Francis. She was raised in New York City, graduating from Cathedral High School there in 1939. She met her husband, John D’Andrea, during her first visit to Wainscott after the war with a friend, another nurse with whom she had served. They married in 1947 and had four children. He died in 1976.

Mrs. D’Andrea became active in the Wainscott Sewing Society and, in the 1960s, established a Wainscott troop of Cub Scouts, known as “Den 10, the Wainscott Men.” She was a member of the East Hampton  Ladies Village Improvement Society, spending several decades as a volunteer at its bookshop every Tuesday. She was a lector and extraordinary minister first at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton and later at Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Bridgehampton. She also was a volunteer librarian at Most Holy Trinity School while her children were students there.

She also worked and made friends at Simple Pleasures Bakery in Bridgehampton, which was owned by one of her sons, Paul D’Andrea, and his wife, Lisa D’Andrea. Between 1995 and 2005 she was a volunteer for the American Foundation for the Blind’s National Literacy Center in Atlanta, when she was in that area visiting her daughter, Frances Mary D’Andrea.

Mrs. D’Andrea was a member of a bridge club in Wainscott for more than 50 years. Her interests also included reading British mysteries and doing crossword puzzles. She loved classical music and Broadway shows, and liked to travel, having visited China, Italy, Japan, and Canada, as well as places in this country where her children and grandchildren lived.

Mrs. D’Andrea’s daughter remembered her as a strong and giving person with a wonderful sense of humor. “She was very caring and loving, and she was very smart and sharp,” she said. “She was a great listener, with lots of friends who really loved her and relied on her. She believed in giving back to the community, staying busy, and doing good work.”

She moved to the assisted living facility in Raleigh in 2009, which was near her son Thomas D’Andrea’s residence. He survives, as do John D’Andrea of Tucson and Paul D’Andrea of East Hampton, in addition to her daughter, who now lives in Pittsburgh. Ten grandchildren and two great-grandchildren also survive, as does Tomoko Shibao, an exchange student from Japan who lived with the D’Andrea family during the 1970s and remained a close friend.

A funeral Mass was said on Friday at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Raleigh. A military service will take place at the burial of her ashes at Most Holy Trinity Cemetery on Nov. 14, after which friends and family will gather at the Wainscott Chapel to celebrate her life. Memorial contributions have been suggested to the Wainscott Sewing Society, P.O. Box 273, Wainscott 11975.

Thomas F. Miller, Retired Cop

Thomas F. Miller, Retired Cop

Jan. 12, 1959 - Oct. 12, 2015
By
Star Staff

Tommy Miller, a 12th-generation Bonacker who retired from the East Hampton Town Police Department in 2004 after 22 years on the force, was “part of the community in so many ways,” said Michael Sarlo, the department’s current chief. “He knew everyone and spent a great deal of time building relationships on the job. If we all got out of the patrol car and talked to people as much as he did, we’d all be better at our jobs,” said Mr. Sarlo.

Mr. Miller, also called Bubba, was honored as Police Officer of the Year in 1993. “He had a great sense of humor and always spoke his mind, regardless of what you may think of his opinions,” Chief Sarlo said. The retired cop, who was known to go out of his way for young officers, remained highly popular with his peers to the end.

He was also a 15-year volunteer with the Amagansett Fire Department, which honored him this week with a memorial bunting above the firehouse, and a five-year member of the East Hampton Fire Department before that.

Mr. Miller, who was 56, died at his home, Oak-Dale Farms on Three Mile Harbor Road in East Hampton, during the early morning hours Monday. He was diagnosed with melanoma in 2002, and after an initial removal of the lymph nodes had a clean bill of health until 2011, said his wife, Lianne Bennett Miller.

“Even while he was sick and weak, whenever I would run into him, he always took time to talk about the guys on the job, and showed an honest interest in everyone,” said Chief Sarlo. “He was so positive and supportive. I admire the way he handled himself and the personal courage he displayed.”

The Millers, who were married in 1993, lived at the farm with their three children and a menagerie of horses, horned cattle, chickens, and pets. OakDale Farms, which supplies many households and businesses with hay and shavings, is easily spotted, with a giant American flag painted on the side of its barn.

Mr. Miller could often be found with his shiny Peterbilt semi-tractor making deliveries on the East End, or running upstate or to Pennsylvania and Vermont for pickups. “Tommy’s grin while driving his truck was a welcome sight for many,” said the family.

Born Thomas Francis Miller on Jan. 12, 1959, in Southampton Hospital to Nathaniel H. Miller and the former Cathryn Sadowsky, both now deceased, he graduated from East Hampton High School. His first wife, the former Debra Ann Stonemetz of Springs, died in 1991.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Miller is survived by twin daughters, Michelle Lee Miller of East Hampton and Lisa Ann Moser of Chesapeake, Va., and a son, Charlie Thomas Miller, a junior in high school. He also leaves a brother, Kevin F. Miller of East Hampton, and many relatives in the Miller, Bennett, and Stonemetz families, among them 20 nieces and nephews.

Visitation will be held on Saturday at the Amagansett Firehouse from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Services will follow, with the Rev. Peter Allen, who was chaplain at the firehouse during Mr. Miller’s time there, officiating. Mr. Miller’s ashes will then be buried at Oak Grove Cemetery in Amagansett, and the family will receive friends afterward back at the firehouse.

Memorial donations have been suggested for any of the organizations important to Mr. Miller: Amagansett Fire Department, P.O. Box 911, Amagansett 11930; East Hampton Town Police Benevolent Association, P.O. Box 1035, East Hampton 11937; East Hampton Fire Department, 1 Cedar Street, East Hampton; American Legion Post 419, P.O. Box 1343, East Ham; Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Avenue, New York 10065, or East End Hospice, P.O. Box 1048, Westhampton Beach 11978.

 

 

John Berg, Renowned Art Director

John Berg, Renowned Art Director

Jan. 12, 1932 - Oct. 11, 2015
By
Christopher Walsh

John Berg, a longtime art director for Columbia Records who oversaw the design of iconic album covers by artists including Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Chicago, and Santana, died on Sunday at the Hamptons Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Southampton. The cause was pneumonia, said his wife, Durell Godfrey, a photographer for The Star. He was 83 and a year-round resident of East Hampton since retiring in 2001.

Mr. Berg, who was responsible for more than 5,000 album covers, was recognized with four Grammy Awards and 29 Grammy nominations, as well as design awards from AIGA, the Professional Association for Design, the Art Directors Club, and the Society of Illustrators. “John Berg: Album Covers, 1961-1985” was exhibited at Guild Hall in East Hampton in 2012.

His work was characterized by innovation and exemplified by albums such as “Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits,” a 1967 release that was packaged with an accompanying poster for the first time. The album’s cover was itself striking, featuring a close-up, backlit photo of Mr. Dylan in profile, hair magnificently unkempt. The poster, by the designer Milton Glaser, was also of Mr. Dylan in profile, this time a silhouette from which a psychedelic rainbow of hair sprouted like colorful mushrooms.

Mr. Dylan’s 1966 double album “Blonde on Blonde” featured a gatefold sleeve which opened to depict a three-quarter length vertical photo of the artist. “The record would fall out on the floor when you opened it up,” Mr. Berg told The Star in 2012. “That was a big selling point. Everybody wanted one, because they’d never seen that before.”

Mr. Berg “is one of those figures who for one reason or another makes you want to do your best work,” Mr. Glaser wrote in a catalogue for an exhibition of his work in Italy. “There is no one in the field that I personally find more satisfying to work for. When John likes the job, I assume I’m doing well.”

“It struck me how many millions of people he touched with his vision of music,” Andy Engel, a designer who worked for Mr. Berg in the 1970s, wrote on Facebook. “Music was everything to our generation. It helped us find our place, develop our priorities, console us. Half of that was the visuals that accompanied those sounds, and so much of that was John’s vision.”

Perhaps Mr. Berg’s best known contribution to Columbia’s extraordinary catalog is Mr. Springsteen’s 1975 album “Born to Run,” another gatefold sleeve in which the artist, with a Fender Telecaster hanging from his shoulder, leans on the late Clarence Clemons, the longtime saxophonist in his E Street Band.

It might not have happened that way, Mr. Berg told The Star. Mr. Springsteen came to his office with the photographer, Eric Meola, and a stack of contact sheets. “Bruce showed me the picture he wanted, which I always describe as ‘John Updike,’ ” he said. “He looked like an author, one of those back-cover-of-his-book pictures. I asked him to leave the stuff with me, and I would go through the contacts.”

Alone, Mr. Berg chose one from about five photographs, convinced label executives to shoulder the additional cost for a gatefold sleeve, and “then had to sell it to Bruce,” he said. “The rest is history. It’s just charming, that’s the only word I can use.”

John Hendrickson Berg was born on Jan. 12, 1932, in Brooklyn to William J. Berg and the former Jeanette Hendrickson. He grew up there, graduating from Erasmus Hall High School in the borough’s Flatbush neighborhood before attending Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in Manhattan, graduating in 1952.

Mr. Berg and Ms. Godfrey, who met on a blind date, were married on May 15, 1982. They lived on East 22nd Street in Manhattan, which is within sight of Ms. Godfrey’s childhood home in the Peter Cooper Village complex. He was 13 years older than she was.

“When he went to Cooper Union,” she said, “I was playing in the play yard at Grace Church School. He must have walked by and seen me.”

Mr. Berg had bought a house in East Hampton at around 1979, “a divorce present for himself,” Ms. Godfrey explained. They lived in Manhattan and East Hampton until Mr. Berg’s retirement.

In addition to Ms. Godfrey, he is survived by a daughter from his first marriage, Kristina Berg of Manhattan. A son, Lars, died in 1984, 31 years before him to the day. A brother, William, also died before him.

Mr. Berg donated his body to Stony Brook University’s Department of Anatomical Sciences, which has had a donation program for many years. He will be cremated and a marker placed in the Orient Central Cemetery in Southold, alongside those of Ms. Godfrey’s family members. His ashes will be scattered privately.

Mr. Berg’s daughter is planning a memorial next year in Manhattan. Memorial contributions have been suggested to the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, 30 Cooper Square, New York 10003.

 

Harry J. O’Rourke

Harry J. O’Rourke

Nov. 5, 1930 - Sept. 29, 2015
By
Star Staff

Harry J. O’Rourke, who grew up in Wainscott and East Hampton Village and had a successful insurance career after serving in the Marine Corps, died on Sept. 29 at Kettering Hospital in Ohio after a short illness. He was 84 and lived in Centerville, Ohio.

Mr. O’Rourke was the son of Harry O’Rourke and the former Margaret Daly, born in Plainfield, N.J., on Nov. 5, 1930. He first attended the Wainscott School. The family moved to East Hampton Village a short time after the 1938 Hurricane swept across Long Island.

While at East Hampton High School, he was a four-year varsity football player and led the county in scoring in his senior year before going on to attend Staunton Military Academy in Virginia and then Miami University in Ohio. He was named to the East Hampton High School Hall of Fame in 2013.

While living in East Hampton, Mr. O’Rourke worked during summers as a lifeguard at the Maidstone Club. He married the former Madeline Ann Brown, whom he met at Miami University, on Feb. 25, 1955, shortly before leaving for officer’s training camp.

After training at Camp Pendleton in California, he served as an officer in the Marine Corps, stationed in Okinawa. He worked for Procter and Gamble for a time before going into insurance with American United Life in Ohio. He went on to earn numerous awards during his professional career and to be president of the Dayton Association of Life Underwriters, his family said.

In Ohio, Mr. O’Rourke also was involved with  United Way, the University of Dayton athletic program, Archbishop Alter High School, and the Walnut Grove Country Club. He was described by his family as a curious man who had a memorable and infectious laugh. He was a golfer, fisherman, skier, and enjoyed travel, often returning to East Hampton to see his extended family and old friends.

His wife died in 1985, and he is survived by their children, Lynn O. Hayes of Scottsdale, Ariz., Michael O’Rourke and Timothy O’Rourke of Denver, Sharon O. Wood of Water Mill, and Daniel O’Rourke of Bellbrook, Ohio. Louise Hoover of Centerville, Ohio, his companion of 20 years, also survives, as does a sister, Ann Schiavoni of Sag Harbor, and 10 grandchildren. A brother, William O’Rourke, and a sister, Margaret Kalish, died before him.

A funeral Mass was said for him on Oct. 3 at St. Leonard’s Chapel in Centerville, followed by burial in the Centerville Cemetery.

Memorial donations have been suggested to the Wounded Warrior Project at woundedwarriorproject.org or to St. Leonard’s Ministries, 8100 Cylo Road, Centerville, Ohio 45458.

 

 

Charles Gould, Veterinarian

Charles Gould, Veterinarian

June 13, 1935 - Oct. 14, 2015
By
Star Staff

Charles Norman Gould, a longtime veterinarian and founder of the Olde Towne Animal Hospital in Southampton, died at home in Bridgehampton on Oct. 14 after a short illness. He was 80.

“He mentored us all in so many ways,” the present owners of the hospital, Claude Grosjean, Rick Altieri, and Dawn Stelling, wrote. “His goal was to work for the greater good. He always treated everyone fairly and saw the good side in all situations. He was a father to all of us.”

Dr. Gould, who was called Charlie, was born in Montauk on June 13, 1935, to Norman Gould, a dairy farmer, and the former Abby Parsons. He grew up in East Hampton, was proud of his roots, and liked to recall that his grandparents had married at the Montauk Lighthouse.

Dr. Gould graduated from East Hampton High School in 1953, completed pre-veterinary training at the New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in Ithaca, and graduated from the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University in 1959. After graduating, he served in the Army Veterinary Corps before starting a practice in Connecticut. He soon returned to the South Fork, however, founding the Olde Towne Animal Hospital in 1965. He retired in 1999.

Lewis Berman of New York City, Dr. Gould’s longtime friend from their days  at Cornell, said that “Charlie was an amazing person who lived life to the fullest. His intuitive competence as a diagnostician and skilled surgeon were incomparable. His skills as a raconteur and chronicler of East End history are unforgettable. As a friend, there was no one better.”

His family and friends said that his knowledge and love of history, politics, and current affairs was most impressive. No one, they said, will forget his warmth, kindness, quick wit, and hearty laugh. He also will be remembered for his love of adventure, his family said.

He mastered the art of celestial navigation after taking up sailing in the early 1970s, and was a longtime member of the Sag Harbor Yacht Club, which he served as commodore. He made multiple round-trip voyages from Sag Harbor to the Caribbean, ultimately building a house in Anguilla. He also was a pilot and had owned several airplanes.

Dr. Gould and Adele Finaly Gould were married on Sept. 19, 1998. She survives him, as do a son, Steven Gould of Sag Harbor, and a granddaughter. A sister died before him.

Dr. Gould was cremated, and his ashes will be buried at Cedar Lawn Cemetery in East Hampton.

A private celebration of Dr. Gould’s life will be held at a date to be announced.

 

 

Nondita Mason, English Professor

Nondita Mason, English Professor

Aug. 13, 1942 - Sept. 25, 2015
By
Star Staff

Nondita Mason, a retired professor of postcolonial literature and theory at Hunter College, died on Sept. 25 at her Manhattan apartment, one day after returning from a 23-day trip to Italy, Greece, and Turkey with her husband, Bryant Mason.

The couple had climbed the Acropolis and visited the Parthenon in Athens; cruised to Santorini, Rhodes, Patmos, Mykonos, and Limnos; heard classical  music at an illuminated Greek amphitheater at Ephesus in Turkey; toured Istanbul, and visited the Coliseum and the Vatican in Rome. 

The cause was long-term complications of bronchiectasis, a disease for which there is no cure. “After 15 years of suffering with this disease, she simply ran out of energy,” her husband wrote. She was 73.

Ms. Mason began her tenure with Hunter College’s English department in 1980, and regularly taught a course on V.S. Naipaul, the focus of her doctoral dissertation at New York University. She served on the college’s sexual harassment investigation panel in 1995 and retired in 2008. 

   Her husband described her as “a private person and a consummate communicator in her daily life” who loved people. “She was radiant with energy when preparing for and engaging with students in her classrooms.” She always took note when students were “full of questions and surprises,” but was firm when they did not live up to expectations, her husband said. She strived to inspire them to weave their perspectives with accurate information and “logically progressive thoughts.”

In announcing her death to faculty, the English department called her a “superb teacher, a valued mentor to junior colleagues, and an inspiring colleague,” Mr. Mason said. She brought compassion, intelligence, and insight to everything she did at the college, her colleagues said.

The Masons met in India in 1967 and married the following year after Mr. Mason had completed two years in the Peace Corps. They lived in Manhattan and on Atlantic Avenue in Amagansett.

“Nondita appreciated the ever-changing light facets as they played across East End clouds and landscapes,” her husband said.

Ms. Mason was born in Kolkata, India, on Aug. 13, 1942, to Hari Pada and Suniti Chadhury. She grew up there, attending Presidency College, where she earned a master’s degree in English.

“She possessed a gentle, gracious spirit and a calm, regal bearing,” her husband said. “Living with her and exploring life for 47 years was such an oasis of kindness and grace amidst the relentlessness of college and life.” She was passionate in her opinions, but “she didn’t want me to do things her way,” he said. “She wanted me to do them the right way.”

She had a keen sense of justice and was a consummate follower of current events who rarely missed a broadcast of Amy Goodman’s “Democracy Now,” checked The Guardian newspaper online, and loved to read The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books, her husband said.

Ms. Mason also enjoyed cooking and loved the challenge of a new recipe. “Then, after guests had filled their plates, she found more enjoyment sitting across from interesting people who stated their opinions and talked passionately about issues that matter,” Mr. Mason said.

In addition to her husband, she is survived by a sister, Amita Samanta of Kolkata, and three brothers, Prodip Chaudhury of Washington, D.C., Sanat Chaudhury of Heidelberg, Germany, and Dilip Kumar Chaudhury of Kolkata.

Her ashes will be spread at the Ganges River in India.

A memorial service is being planned for Dec. 6.

 

 

Paula G. McGrath

Paula G. McGrath

May 30, 1969 - Oct. 4, 2015
By
Star Staff

Paula Grace McGrath, a summer resident of Waterhole Road in Springs, died of breast cancer in London on Oct. 4. She was 46, and had been ill for a long time.

Ms. McGrath, a lawyer, was an adjunct professor in London for Fordham and Syracuse Universities. She had worked before 2000 in the legal department of the New York Life Insurance Company.

She was born in New York City on May 30, 1969, the daughter of John W. and Diane Lewis McGrath, and grew up in the city while spending summers in East Hampton. She attended the Nightingale-Bamford School and the Loyola School in Manhattan and earned a B.A. from American University in Washington, D.C. She received her law degree from Fordham Law School.

A marriage in April 2000 to Pape Diouf ended in divorce. Ms. McGrath had lived in London since 2001.

She is survived by two children, Dylan Diouf, 13, and Leopold Diouf, 10, both of London, and by a brother, John McGrath of South Salem, N.Y. Her father and stepmother, Jack and Patti McGrath of New York City and East Hampton, also survive, as do her mother and stepfather, Diane and William McKechnie of Jupiter, Fla.

A memorial service will be held in London on Monday. Contributions in honor of Ms. McGrath have been suggested to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Avenue,  New York 10065.

 

 

Priscilla Huntington

Priscilla Huntington

May 20, 1922 - Sept. 7, 2015
By
Star Staff

Priscilla Weld Huntington, an unwavering advocate for children who was a founding member of what is now the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center in East Hampton, died on Sept. 7 at Peconic Landing in Greenport. She was 93.

Born in Norwich, Conn., on May 20, 1922, Mrs. Huntington was the youngest of the three daughters of Julie Bradlee Weld and John Perit Huntington. She graduated from the George School, a private Quaker high school in Newtown, Pa., in 1939, and went on to earn a degree in psychology from Sarah Lawrence College and a master’s in clinical child psychology from the University of Chicago.

In 1943, she married Sidney E. Rolfe, whom she had met while at Sarah Lawrence. They lived in Manhattan and in Princeton, N.J., where Mr. Rolfe taught at the university, and spent their summers in East Hampton.

They were divorced in 1958, and Mrs. Huntington later had a brief second marriage. Afterward, she traveled extensively throughout Europe and the United States, her family wrote, and lived for a time in Provence, France, in a towcalled Claviers, and in Penngrove, Calif., in Sonoma County wine country. She spent summers in Guysborough, Nova Scotia, before moving in 2003 to Peconic Landing. Her family said the staff at the retirement community was particularly compassionate in caring for her.

“Cherished of her wit, warmth, and strong personality, Priscilla was an excellent cook and a wonderful hostess,” the family wrote. “She was foremost an avid reader and environmentalist, involved in many causes.”

Mrs. Huntington is survived by two nieces, Ann B. Horsman and Susan B. Evans, both of Waterford, Conn., and a nephew, John H. Browning of Wareham, Mass.

A memorial service will be announced at a future date. Memorial contributions have been suggested to Nova Scotia Nature Trust, Box 2202, Halifax, N.S., Canada B3J 3C4; Peconic Land Trust, P.O. Box 1776, Southampton 11969, or the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center, P.O. Box 63, East Hampton 11937.

 

 

Jean DePasquale

Jean DePasquale

Dec. 17, 1927 - Sept. 20, 2015
By
Star Staff

Jean DePasquale, a longtime resident of Montauk, died at home on Sept. 20 of respiratory failure. She was 87 years old.

Mrs. DePasquale came to Montauk in the early 1960s with her husband, Gene DePasquale.

In the late 1970s, the couple moved to Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia, where Mr. DePasquale was vice president of the construction company Anchor Engineering. They returned to Montauk after three years.

Mrs. DePasquale “never had a mean word for anybody,” her son, Eugene DePasquale of Montauk said. “She was always pleasant,” and she loved her family, her pets, gardening, reading, and summertime barbecues. Her husband died in 2007.

She was born on Dec. 17, 1927, to Peter Johnson and the former Florence Herbert and was raised in Freeport, where she was active in the Dean Street Chapel in her youth. She graduated from Freeport High School and worked at the Doubleday bookstore in Garden City, where she enjoyed meeting authors and eventually became a manager. She also lived in Syosset and East Williston.

In addition to her son Eugene DePasquale, Mrs. DePasquale is survived by another son, James DePasquale of Bridgehampton. A third son, Bruce DePasquale, died in 2006. A sister, Barbara Brown, who lives in Rhode Island, and six grandchildren also survive.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Montauk Community Church, with the Rev. Bill Hoffman officiating. Burial will follow at Montauk’s Fort Hill Cemetery. Memorial contributions have been suggested to East End Hospice, P.O. Box 1048, Westhampton Beach 11978.