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.

    Norman Taylor Harrington II, a former English professor at Brooklyn College, died of cancer last Thursday at home in Manhattan. He was 86 and had been ill for 18 months.

    A part-time resident of Amagansett, he loved Fresh Pond, Louse Point, reading in the Amagansett Library, visiting the proprietor of Amagansett Hardware, having clams at Gosman’s Dock in Montauk, and conferring with his favorite plumber, Phil Gamble, his family said.

    His Amagansett house, which he bought with his wife, Delphi Irene Nikopoulos, in 1972, was his labor of love. As late as last August, while already suffering from cancer, he worked at reshingling the roof — his favorite perch — and tended his garden and his cherry trees.

    Mr. Harrington was an assistant professor in the English department at Northwestern University in 1958 and 1959, and it was there he first saw his future wife, who was a student and budding actress. After they became engaged, he followed her to New York, where she pursued her acting career and he taught from 1960 to 2000 in the English department at Brooklyn College. He eventually became a professor emeritus there. The couple were married on June 26, 1960.

    A Medieval and Renaissance scholar, he specialized in Chaucer, and retraced Chaucer’s pilgrimage to Canterbury, as recounted in “The Canterbury Tales,” by bicycle in his 60s.

    He was born in Denver on May 6, 1926, the son of Norman Spencer Harrington and the former Helen Romaine McIntyre, and grew up around Cleveland and Milwaukee.

    Mr. Harrington was a 12th-generation American, with an ancestor who arrived in Massachusetts in 1642. In 1944 and 1945, he served in the Navy and was stationed in California.

    In 1948, Mr. Harrington received a bachelor’s degree from Hobart College, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. In 1960, he was awarded a doctorate from Harvard.

    He was a keen student of French, having studied the language at the Sorbonne in Paris and at the University of Grenoble from 1948 to 1950. In the spring of 1949, he worked on a farm in the Dordogne, and then made puppets for a Paris puppeteer who was using puppet theater to promote the Marshall Plan to the French.

    Mr. Harrington was a “voracious and ambitious reader,” his family said, an amateur painter who studied at the Art Students League in New York City, and a lover of music and theater. Until recently he played tennis, maintaining an “elegant serve,” and was a runner.

    He was also an accomplished cook who loved nothing better than gathering with his family and a wide circle of friends over wine and a good dinner.

    “He was besotted with his family; his three children were everything to him,” his wife said. Besides Ms. Nikopolous, of Manhattan and Amagansett, Mr. Harrington is survived by his children, Spencer, Alexander, and Persephone Harrington, all of New York City, and by five grandchildren. A sibling, Romaine Wasserman of Troy, N.Y., also survives.

    A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. on April 13 at West End Collegiate Church in New York City.

    Sally Penalosa-Wilson of Montauk, a bookkeeper by trade who emigrated from the Philippines in 1986, died on Feb. 12 at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City of breast cancer. She was 76.

    Mrs. Penalosa-Wilson’s daughter Cecy Wilson of Yonkers said her mother was known for her hula dancing. “She loved life. She loved to entertain. She had many friends, and they all knew her for her hula.”

    She was born in the Philippines on May 26, 1936, a daughter of Hugo Penalosa and the former Clariza Montragon. She grew up there and attended the Colegio Santa Rita. She moved to Yonkers in 1986. There she met her future husband, Kenneth J. Wilson, while playing tennis. Tennis was a passion, her daughter said.

    She had worked in banking in the Philippines, and worked for her husband as a bookkeeper. The couple bought the Oceanside Beach Resort in Montauk, sold it, and then bought Fisher’s Cottages on East Lake Drive, also in Montauk. Cecy Wilson said her mother thrived at the cottages. “Montauk was her love. She loved the beach.” Mr. Wilson died late last year.

    In addition to her daughter, Mrs. Penalosa-Wilson is survived by a stepdaughter, Kim Heller of New Jersey, a sister, Aida Penalosa, and her brothers Ernesto and Carlos Penalosa. She also leaves seven grandchildren.

    A funeral service was held at St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic in Montauk on Saturday. Father Michael Rieder officiated. Burial followed at Fort Hill Cemetery in Montauk.

    Antoinette J. Doherty, who was 85, died at home in Amagansett on Feb. 12 after a long and crippling battle with fast-onset dementia. Ms. Doherty, who was called Ann, had a house in the hamlet since the 1970s and was a former trustee of the Amagansett Library.

    Although devoted to Amagansett, Ms. Doherty’s work life centered in New York City. She was one of the founders there of the International Center of Photography and the first employee hired by the original director, Cornell Capa. She also held positions with the American International Press Association, the Chicago Counsel on Foreign Relations, the Institute of International Education, and the Jewish Museum.

    The youngest of four children, Ms. Doherty was born to Gaetano and Gaetana Antonietta on Aug. 15, 1927, in Utica, N.Y. She majored in Spanish at Syracuse University, from which she graduated before beginning a career in the visual arts and education.

    In Amagansett, Ms. Doherty enjoyed gardening and cooking. Sunshine was dear to her, her family said, and she loved to watch the sun rise over the ocean.

    Her husband, William Doherty, survives her, as does a son, Guy Doherty of New York City. Contributions in her memory have been suggested for the Alzheimer’s Association, 225 North Michigan Avenue, 17th Floor, Chicago 60601.

    Robert E. Fordham, a lifelong resident of Sag Harbor and a man who was described as kind and gentle, died of complications related to quadruple bypass surgery while at his vacation home in Port Charlotte, Fla., on Feb. 6. He was 69 years old.

    Described by his family as an 11th generation Fordham in Sag Harbor, Mr. Fordham was born to Hiram (Hydie) and Dorothy Fordham on July 13, 1943. He left for the Vietnam War shortly after graduating from Pierson High School. Following two years of service in the Army, he returned home to marry the former Eileen Archibald in 1968.

    Until his retirement, Mr. Fordham worked as a telephone company lineman and service technician. He had devoted many hours to the Sag Harbor Fire Department for the past 42 years. A member of its Phoenix Hook and Ladder Company, he was known for the aerial ladder and was both a captain and warden.

    Mr. Fordham was a Boy Scout leader who held meetings at home and helped scouts learn to use tools correctly and develop respect for one another. Over the years, he and his wife devoted countless hours to their children’s schools and St. Andrew’s Catholic Church, helping to run carnivals, fund-raisers, and dinner dances. Mr. Fordham’s family said he always had a story to tell or advice to give. They added that he loved his children and absolutely adored his grandchildren.

    Mr. Fordham is survived by his wife and their three children: Scott Fordham, Heidi Fordham Wilson, and Kiersten Fordham Simmons, all of whom live in Sag Harbor. In addition to six grandchildren, he also is survived by a sister, Judy Gregory, and a brother, Donald Fordham, who also live in Sag Harbor.

    A wake was held at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in Sag Harbor on Feb. 12, followed by burial at St. Andrew’s Cemetery in Sag Harbor. Donations have been suggested for the Sag Harbor Fire Department, Brick Kiln Road, Sag Harbor 11963, or the March of Dimes, 515 Madison Avenue, 20th Floor, New York 10022.

ay, Montauk, and Jupiter, Fla., died on Feb. 10 after a year’s illness. He was 92.     Mr. Mandel was a founder and partner of Golden and Mandel, a New York City law firm. He had been a lieutenant in the United States Army Air Force during World War II.

    He was born on April 14, 1920, in Brooklyn to Abraham and Sophie Mandel. His schooling was in his home borough, then at Cornell University, where he received an award for a play he wrote. While at Cornell, he met the woman he would marry, Florence Doris Miller. They wed on Aug. 11, 1943, and remained together for 66 years, until her death in 2009.

    The war interrupted his education at Yale Law School. He returned, however, serving as articles editor of the Yale Law Review while completing his degree.

    During the war, while Lieutenant Mandel was stationed in Nebraska, he taught “blind” flying using the Link Trainer, a windowless box with working flight controls in which future combat pilots were shut. Although he had not yet finished law school, he acted as a prosecutor in Army legal proceedings.

    From 1947 to ’49 Mr. Mandel worked for the Paul Weiss law firm in New York City, then went into private practice. He co-founded Golden and Mandel in the 1970s, commuting from his house in Roslyn, where the couple had lived beginning in about 1949. He represented clients in a number of high-profile corporate cases, his family said, including one against The New York Times in a cable television dispute, which resulted in a $6 million award.

    The Mandels bought their Montauk vacation and weekend house in 1963. Over the years, they spent more and more time there, eventually making it their home. Mr. Mandel, a lifelong fisherman, chased big striped bass from his boat, the Castaway, a 26-foot Brownell, and spent countless hours surfcasting — barefoot — on the ocean beaches. In later years, the couple spent their winters in Florida, where Mr. Mandel’s fishing continued throughout the year.

    He is survived by their children, Dorsey Mayer of Roslyn, Philip M. Mandel of Montauk, and Marc O. Mandel of Sea Cliff, as well as by six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

    A graveside service was conducted by Rabbi Richard Berman of Temple Judea of Manhasset at Mount Carmel Cemetery in Queens on Feb. 12.

    Louise Jensen, who was a New York Telephone Company  operator in East Hampton for about 15 years, died on Feb. 10 at F.F. Thompson Hospital in Canandaigua, N.Y., due to complications of Alzheimer’s disease. She was 85.

     Mrs. Jensen was born to Frank and Caroline Easer Grimshaw on Aug. 17, 1927, at her grandparents’ house on Cove Hollow Road in East Hampton. She grew up on Wireless Road in East Hampton, graduated from East Hampton High School, and lived here until 1965, when she married Robert Jensen and moved upstate. Her first marriage, to Edward Brennan in 1945, had ended in divorce.

    As a young woman, Mrs. Jensen enjoyed the beach, clamming, dancing, and crafts. In her later years, her hobbies included camping, bingo, crocheting, and reading romance novels. In Canandaigua, she worked at the F.F. Thompson Hospital until retirement.

    Her husband survives her, as do four children, Bill Brennan of Brandon, Fla., Sharon Dater of Lantana, Fla., Julie Catalfamo of Fairport, N.Y., and Kathi Guth of Folgelsville, Pa., and seven grandchildren. Her brother, Harry Grimshaw, died before her.

    A funeral was held on Feb. 14 at Fuller Funeral Home in Canandaigua, with burial following at Woodlawn Cemetery in the same town. Condolences may be shared at fullerfh.com. Memorial contributions have been suggested for the Alzheimer’s Association, 435 Henrietta Road, Rochester 14620.

    Myrna Omang, a retired advertising executive, died on Feb. 1 at her Breeze Hill Road residence in East Hampton, where she had lived with her partner of 32 years, Beverly Matthews, whom she married in August 2010. She was 78 and had acute myeloid leukemia, Ms. Matthews said.

    From a career that began in Chicago, Ms. Omang became a Madison Avenue advertising executive. She had been a senior vice president and director of television and print commercial production services at Compton Advertising in Chicago; then worked for the company in New York City. Compton later became part of Saatchi and Saatchi advertising.

    For 35 years she was a pioneer in advertising, breaking barriers and forging new opportunities for the women who followed her, Ms. Matthews said. She was described as a powerful mentor, and revered in the business, from which she retired in 1994.

    She was quietly philanthropic, Ms. Matthews said, supporting individuals and progressive organizations, especially those concerned with equal rights and financial equality for women, and was delighted with the success of Rachel Maddow, the television personality.

    Ms. Omang was widely traveled, an avid and eclectic reader, and a volunteer with the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary in Indian Shores, Fla., near the couple’s winter house in Clearwater. They welcomed friends and family to both their houses with hospitality and warmth, spiced with fun and humor, Ms. Matthews said. She described Ms. Omang as a woman with a wry wit, who was able to find the absurdity and irony in life’s situations.

    Ms. Omang was born in Roseau, Minn., on April 24, 1934, to Rudolph B. Omang and the former Anne Johnson. She grew up in Grand Fork, N.D., and graduated from Northeastern University in Boston.

    A service was private.

    Memorial donations have been suggested to Planned Parenthood, 434 West 33rd Street, New York 10001; Lambda Legal, 120 Wall Street, 19th Floor, New York 10005; Mothers Against Drunk Driving at Madd.org; Suncoast Hospice Foundation, 5771 Roosevelt Boulevard, Clearwater, Fla. 33760, or Habitat for Humanity at Habitat.org.

    Samuel J. Spielberg, a resident of Springs, died on Friday following an auto accident. He was 31. A memorial service was held yesterday afternoon at Ashawagh Hall in Springs.

    The son of Jason and Sherry Spielberg of Springs, Mr. Spielberg is survived by his parents, his wife, Kariann Spielberg of Springs, and his sister, Summer Wolff of Italy, along with a 6-year-old daughter, Bianca Mar Spielberg.

    The family has established a scholarship fund for her, and has suggested that donations, earmarked “For Bianca,” be sent to Jason Spielberg, 16 Three Mile Harbor-Hog Creek Road, East Hampton 11937. An obituary will appear in a future issue.