Samuel Jacob Spielberg, who loved his hometown of East Hampton and was raising his own daughter here, died on Feb. 22 following a single car accident in Amagansett. He was 31.

    Hundreds filled Ashawagh Hall in Springs and gathered on the lawn outside during a celebration of his life on Feb. 28.

    Mr. Spielberg was dedicated to his family and to his friends, both lifelong and new, and they spoke last week of his generous and caring nature.

    One friend described how Mr. Spielberg had taken immense joy, from the very start, in being a father, and had determined to be the very best dad to his daughter, Bianca Mar Spielberg, now 6. By all accounts, he succeeded. The job he loved the most was being a devoted and loving parent, his family said. It was “the role that he was put on this earth for,” his sister, Summer Wolff, said at the memorial.

    He was a thoughtful man, colleagues said, who, as he entered his 30s, was growing to become more and more like his father.

    For the last four years, Sam Spielberg worked alongside his father in the family business, Spielberg Nursery.

    He was born in Reading, Pa., on Feb. 7, 1982, the son of Jason Spielberg and the former Sherry Richards. The family moved that year to Springs, where Mr. Spielberg attended the Springs School. He graduated from East Hampton High School in 2000.

    Relatives recalled a lively, sometimes mischievous little boy, one of a pack of cousins that were like siblings.

    As the younger sibling, his sister said, he took his share of teasing, but when he got older, instead of turning the tables, Ms. Wolff said her brother looked after and protected her, as well as her friends. He had a “huge heart,” she said.

    After high school he lived in Colorado and then in California for a time, working and taking classes at community college.

    In June 2008, he was married to the former Karriann Huff. Mr. Spielberg liked to snowboard and to surf. Surfer friends are planning to gather for a “paddle out,” circling together in the ocean in his memory, on a future date.

    He was a fan of reggae, and, at his memorial, Mama Lee (Lawler) and Rose performed some reggae songs a cappella. He loved East Hampton, Ms. Wolff said, loved being a local in his hometown, and loved his parents’ house on Three Mile Harbor.

    Besides Ms. Wolff of Montaldo, Italy, his wife, Kariann Spielberg of East Hampton, and his daughter, Mr. Spielberg is survived by both his parents, who live in Springs.

    In her father’s memory, the family has established a scholarship fund for Bianca Spielberg. Donations may be sent to Jason Spielberg at 16 Three Mile Harbor-Hog Creek Road, East Hampton 11937.

    A wake will be held at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton next Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. for Mary Dunne of Amagansett, who died on Sunday at the age of 94. A funeral Mass will be said on Friday, March 22, at 10 a.m. at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton.

    An obituary will appear in a future issue.

    Visiting hours for Gloria Rousell, 90, of Montauk, who died Sunday at Southampton Hospital, will be tomorrow from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton. A funeral Mass for her will be said at St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church in Montauk at 10 a.m. Saturday. Burial will be at Fort Hill Cemetery in Montauk.

    The Rousell family has suggested memorial donations to St. Therese of Lisieux, Box 5027, Montauk 11954; the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons, Box 901, Wainscott 11975, or the Montauk Fire Department, 12 Flamingo Avenue, Montauk.

    An obituary will appear in a future issue.

    Margaret Moffat Young, an East Hampton real estate agent who served as a nurse’s aide during World War II, died on Jan. 27 in Lancaster, Pa. She was 88 and had Alzheimer’s disease.

    She was born on Sept. 18, 1924, to John Gilchrist Moffat and the former Jane Scull. She attended the Knox School in Scranton, Pa., and Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. She married John Dowdney in 1947. They lived in New York and summered in East Hampton.

    She later married Nigel Young of Glasgow, Scotland, who served with the Royal Air Force and received the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service in World War II. The couple lived in London for three years beginning in 1959 and then settled in East Hampton. Mr. Young died in 1988.

    In 1946 she went overseas as a counselor with the Maclannet Committee for Aid to French War Orphans.

    Mrs. Young was involved in Republican politics and served as chairwoman of the Women’s Division of the New York State Citizens for Eisenhower. She also worked for the Long Island campaign to elect Richard Nixon.

    After leaving Vassar she got a job as a relocation consultant for the Homerica Corporation, a mortgage broker in New York City. She helped find houses for corporate customers, work that prepared her for a career in real estate. She was active in the Friends of the Philharmonic and the Junior League of New York.

    After marrying Mr. Young in 1965, they joined the Edward F. Cook firm in East Hampton. They later founded Woods Lane Estate Agents, and then Young and Company, which operated throughout the late 1970s and through the 1980s. Young and Company was folded into the Allan M. Schneider agency after Mr. Young’s death.

    In East Hampton she served on the executive committee of the town and village and worked with the Ladies Village Improvement Society. She moved to Lancaster in 2002.

    Mrs. Young is survived by three children, Lisa Dowdney of Leadville, Colo., Deborah Seaman of Eagle, Colo., and James Young of East Hampton. She leaves Luisa Castillo of East Hampton, a dear friend she thought of as a daughter, and a sister, Jane Mueller of Lancaster. She is also survived by five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

    Memorial contributions were suggested for the Ladies Village Improvement Society, 95 Main Street, East Hampton 11937. A memorial service will be held starting at noon on May 4 at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in East Hampton. The Rev. Denis Brunelle will officiate. Mrs. Young was buried in the church cemetery.

    Edward John Golden, who was called Skip and spent the first half of his life in Montauk, died on Feb. 27 following a seizure. He was 48.

    Mr. Golden had been a resident of the Association for Help of Retarded Children’s intermediate care facility in Shoreham for the last 24 years.

    Born in Flushing on Aug. 10, 1964, he was the son of Edward Golden and the former Margaret Burke, now Margaret Lachman. His father died in 1969.

    He is survived by his mother, a native of Montauk, and his stepfather, Robert Lachman, who live in Montauk and in Florida.

    Mr. Golden was cremated. His ashes will be buried alongside his father. A memorial service is planned for a later date.

    The family has suggested memorial contributions to the Association for Help of Retarded Children, Suffolk Chapter, 2900 Veterans Memorial Highway, Bohemia 11716.

    A Mass of Christian burial was said on Feb. 18 at St. Andrew’s Catholic Church in Sag Harbor for Helen Downes Labrozzi of Sag Harbor, who died on Feb. 15 at the age of 93 at Good Shepherd Hospice in Port Jefferson. Burial followed at St. Andrew’s Cemetery, also in Sag Harbor.

    Ms. Labrozzi had suffered a stroke while a resident at Sunrise Senior Living in East Setauket.

    Born on Nov. 11, 1919, in Sag Harbor to Edmund Downes and Helen Jones Downes, Ms. Labrozzi graduated from Pierson High School in June 1937. She married Joseph R. Labrozzi at St Andrew’s Church in 1942. He died in 1993.

    Ms. Labrozzi had worked as the bookkeeper for her husband’s contracting business for almost 40 years, until 1982. She had worked at the Bulova Watchcase Factory and the Sag Harbor Variety Store between high school and the birth of her son, Joseph W. Labrozzi of Sag Harbor, in 1944. He and his wife, Mary, cared for his mother during her later years.

    In addition to her son, Ms. Labrozzi is survived by five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Her brothers, William Downes and Edmund Downes of Sag Harbor, and a sister, Mary Schrader of Milford, Conn., all died before her.

     Ms. Labrozzi was buried at St. Andrew’s Cemetery following the Mass. Donations in her memory have been suggested to Sag Harbor Fire Department, P.O. Box 209, or the Sag Harbor Ambulance Association, P.O. Box 2725, Sag Harbor 11963.

    Enrique Leon, a 35-year resident of East Hampton who was involved in the growth of soccer’s popularity on the South Fork, died at home in Heredia, Costa Rica, on Dec. 17. He was 79 and had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma a few months before his death.

    The oldest of 13 children, Mr. Leon was born on May 31, 1933, in Costa Rica to Juan Felix Leon and the former Rosario Perez. As a young man, he helped support his siblings by selling newspapers, picking coffee beans, and working as a laborer in a lumberyard, a carpenter, and a deckhand on a shrimp boat.

    He married Elizabeth Mussio, who survives, on April 10, 1968. The couple immigrated to the United States shortly afterward and settled in East Hampton.

    In his time here, he worked as a painter and carpenter. He was a skilled craftsman who was fond of classic techniques and antique tools, his family said. He enjoyed spending time at Riverhead Building Supply and the Golden Eagle.

    Mr. Leon played on the original independent soccer team established by Paul Sapienza, and watched the sport’s growth with pride. A few years ago, he enjoyed a reunion of the team’s original roster. A fervent and dedicated lover of the game, he continued playing it with his grandsons until last summer.

    An adventurer, Mr. Leon often drove from New York City to Costa Rica and back, once in a school bus. He enjoyed making the trip accompanied by friends and family. After retiring to Costa Rica, he continued to indulge his wandering spirit by traveling to Nicaragua, Panama, and, most recently, Argentina.

    In addition to his wife, Mr. Leon is survived by two daughters, Vanessa Leon and Alyson Rogoski, both of East Hampton, a son, Alonso Leon of Costa Rica, and two grandsons. He is also survived by his brothers, Jorge, Luis, and Jose, all of East Hampton, Narciso, Herman, Miguel, Juan, and Geraldo, all of Costa Rica, and two sisters, Rosario Fernandez of East Hampton and Amable Cordero of Homestead, Fla.

    Mr. Leon was buried following a funeral service on Dec. 20 in Heredia. His family remembers him as a kind, good-natured man with a great love for family, friends, and life, they said.

    James Montaudevert Waterbury, formerly of East Hampton, died at his house in Stamford, Conn., on Feb. 8 of Alzheimer’s disease. He was 85 and had been ill a long time.

    Mr. Waterbury, who was known to friends and family as Monty, was born in Los Angeles on Aug. 8, 1927, to Cleveland Livingston Waterbury and the former Frances Riddle. He grew up on the East Coast.

    After graduating from St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire, he served in the United States Marine Corps. He later graduated from Yale University, in 1950.

    Mr. Waterbury spent the bulk of his professional life working in the securities industry at the former National Securities and Research Corporation, a New York mutual fund company founded by Henry J. Simonson, his father-in-law. He also worked at the former Hambrecht and Quist, an investment bank in San Francisco.

    Later in his career, he founded Golf Search, an executive recruiting firm. It allowed him to work in the same industry as his beloved hobby and lifelong passion. His love of golf led him to serve as a governor of the Maidstone Club in East Hampton and the National Golf Links in Southampton. 

    Mr. Waterbury spent time on the South Fork throughout his life, first as a boy in Southampton, and for more than 20 years at his house on Egypt Lane here. Described by his family as a “man of sport and surf,” he loved the ocean and taught all of his children and grandchildren to love it as well.

    He is survived by Kay Simonson, his wife of 56 years, and their five children, Jim Waterbury of Greenwich, Conn., Hope Waterbury of New York, Christine Waterbury of New York, Carol Quinlan of Annapolis, Md., and Sue Waterbury-Rose of New York and East Hampton. Five grandchildren survive as well, as does a sister, Cynthia Cole of Maine.

    A funeral Mass was said on Feb. 12 at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in Manhattan, where the Waterburys were married nearly 57 years ago. The family has suggested memorial donations for the Connecticut chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association: 2075 Silas Deane Highway, Suite 100, Rocky Hill, Conn. 06067.

    As if by magic — though in reality it took an indomitable spirit, tireless cajoling, and a deep belief in music’s universal value — Ruth Widder routinely transformed the folding chairs and wooden bleachers of the Montauk School gymnasium into Lincoln Center for over two decades and counting.

    Ms. Widder died at her Manhattan residence on Feb. 20. She was 84. The cause of death is not known; except for a cold the week before, she had not been ill. A memorial service was held yesterday at the Riverside Memorial Chapel in Manhattan.

    In founding Music for Montauk in 1991, Ms. Widder had more in mind than providing entertainment, much needed in Montauk’s off-season months, to the hamlet’s adult population. Her vision was to have world-class musicians perform for, and answer questions posed by, Montauk’s elementary school children during the day, and then perform for their parents and grandparents at night.

    Whether it was string quartets, jazz combos, swing bands, solo virtuosi, or unfamiliar ethnic harmonies, the program became an unqualified success.

    “What was so extraordinary about Ruth was that unlike so many others, she was able to somehow translate her remarkable knowledge and talent into action. When Ruth was involved, things just got done,” Bill Akin, who worked with Ms. Widder to build and expand the Music for Montauk program, said on Monday.

    Ms. Widder was as gregarious as she was generous. She had a disarming charm and wry sense of humor that enlivened gatherings and no doubt softened any defenses that might have stood in the way of her good works.   

    She was born in the Bronx on Sept. 22, 1928, a daughter of Moritz Blasenheim and the former Fanny Wintner. Legend had it that Featherbed Lane in the Bronx, where she lived as a girl, got its name during the Revolution when residents covered the street with feather-bedding to muffle the sound of troop movements. Ms. Widder told her two daughters that she preferred an alternate derivation, that the name referred to the strong possibility that the area was a popular red-light district at the time.

    She graduated from Hunter College in 1948 with a bachelor’s degree in economics. After college she joined the Freylinghousen Insurance Company. In 1955, while working for the Ruwid Corporation, a fabric manufacturing company, she married Herman Widder, an army veteran and graduate of the Wharton School of Business who became president and C.E.O. of Widder Brothers, a Pennsylvania fabric manufacturer, in 1968. At around the same time, the couple bought a house on North Greenwich Street in Montauk, where in later years Ms. Widder presided happily over many Music for Montauk post-performance  gatherings.

    Ms. Widder, who took over the reins of Widder Brothers after Mr. Widder died in 2001, was a philanthropist who served on Guild Hall’s board of trustees and as a director of the Mannes College of Music, now part of the New School. She was also a trustee of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and on the Visiting Committee of the Musical Instrument Collection at the Metropolitan Museum. She was closely affiliated with the Manhattan School of Music.

    She made it her business to help younger musicians, including Boris Slutsky, now chair of the piano department at the Peabody Conservatory; the American String Quartet, the quartet in residence at the Manhattan School of Music, and Max Baros, a Brazilian pianist and musicologist.

    In keeping with her belief in the importance of exposing children to music, she supported the Orchestra of St. Luke’s outreach in New York City schools.

    Ruth Widder was an accomplished pianist in her own right, whose talent was enjoyed by many who happened to pass by her house when she was at her piano, the studio doors open and surrounded by magnificent trees and a luxurious garden. She counted an active appreciation of French language and literature among her many achievements.

    Music for Montauk will continue for the forseeable future. On April 12, the Shattered Glass Music Ensemble will perform the Yale Whiffenpoofs on May 18.

    Ms. Widder is survived by her daughters, Lynette Widder and Laurie Widder, who live in Manhattan and Montauk. She also leaves two grandsons and a sister, Gertrude Weber of Ivy, Va. Memorial contributions have been suggested for the Montauk Library, 871 Montauk Highway, Montauk 11954, and/or Guild Hall of East Hampton, 158 Main Street, East Hampton 11937.

    Caroline Valenta, a trail-blazing newspaper photographer and Pulitzer-prize nominee, who had lived on Suffolk Street in Sag Harbor for more than a decade, died on Feb. 20 at the Westhampton Care Center. She was 88 and had pancreatic cancer for three years.

    Born on May 27, 1924, in Shiner, Tex., to John E. Valenta and the former Lillie Wacker, Ms. Valenta left the University of Houston near the end of her senior year in 1945 to work for The Houston Post as a full-time staff photographer. She was the first woman to be hired as a photographer and the only woman in the photo department.

    Within six months she had taken photographs that earned her national acclaim. One, shot in October, 1945, two months after the end of World War II, was of a returning Army lieutenant greeting his family. It was picked up by the Associated Press wire service and appeared in more than 1,000 newspapers worldwide. Known as “Daddy, Daddy,” it was chosen by Edward Steichen along with another of her photos for an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1949.

    In 1947 Ms. Valenta gained further recognition for a series of pictures of the S.S. Grandcamp, a liberty ship filled with approximately 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate which caught fire and burned dockside, destroying much of the port of Texas City. One image, of the skeleton of the Monsanto Chemical plant, was nominated for a Pulitzer. She was 23 years old at the time.

    Ms. Valenta covered hundreds of accidents, crimes, fires, murders, and disasters as well as human interest stories and celebrity features while working 80-hour weeks. Competing photographers at The Houston Chronicle and The Houston Press, both afternoon newspapers, nicknamed her “ ’ol blood ’n’ guts” because she once picked up a man’s brains while helping ambulance workers who were scrambling to pick up the pieces of two men killed in a fuel-truck explosion. A colleague once introduced her as “the gal who would charge hell with a bucket of water.”

    She also worked all over the United States while on assignment for the leading newsweeklies of the era, such as Life, Time, Look, Fortune, Ebony, and smaller-circulation magazines.

    Ms. Valenta moved to New York City in 1952 with her husband, Worth Gatewood, where she continued to work professionally for the Daily News and news magazines while raising seven children. In 1957 she photographed the birth of her daughter Lillie, holding her Rolleiflex twin-reflex camera upside down and looking up at the viewfinder to compose her pictures. The family moved to Long Island in 1961. Later in life, she moved to Sag Harbor to live with one of her sons, remaining after he moved away.

    While on assignment, Ms. Valenta photographed notables such as future President Lyndon Baines Johnson (then a Senator from Texas), the Duke of Windsor (who photographed her in turn), Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Woody Herman, former Vice President John Nance Garner, Charles Lindbergh, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Phillip Johnson, Ben Hogan, and baseball’s Billy Martin and Stan Musial.

    Once, assigned to photograph W. Averill Harriman, the former Ambassador to the Soviet Union and Great Britain and then Secretary of Commerce under President Harry S. Truman, Ms. Valenta knocked on his hotel room door only to have him answer it in bare feet, clad only in his blue boxer underwear. After she introduced herself, he replied, “Why, I had no idea they’d send a girl to take my picture. C’mon in and take a seat while I get dressed.”

    She is survived by all seven of her children: Dr. Caroline V. Gatewood of Hampton Bays, Grover V. Gatewood of Bridgehampton, Gloria V. Gatewood Russo of Sayville, Lillie V. Gatewood of Greenvale, John V. Gatewood of Oakland, Calif., Rosabelle V. Gatewood Naleski of Southold, and William W. Gatewood of Grayslake, Ill. Also surviving are two stepchildren, Boyd Gatewood of San Jose, Calif., and Louise Gatewood Horton of Houston, eight grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. Her husband, Mr. Gatewood, a former Sunday editor of the Daily News, died in 1998.

    A service was held at the Robertaccio Funeral Home in Patchogue on Tuesday, Feb. 26.