Angela Buckhout

    Angela Buckhout, the president of WLNG radio, died at home in East Hampton on Saturday. She was 66 and had been diagnosed with lung cancer six months ago after losing her voice for several weeks.

    Mrs. Buckhout, who was known as Ann, was born in Rochester on July 15, 1944, to Anthony and Betty Mastromatteo. She moved to Long Island to attend the State University at Stony Brook, where she met her future husband, David Buckhout.

    They were married on Feb. 20, 1963, and indulged their mutual passions for rock collecting and geology with cross-country collecting excursions, including one to the University of Arizona.

    After she graduated from Adelphi University, Mrs. Buckhout became a biology and general science teacher. Her husband, too, was a teacher, and when he accepted a position at East Hampton High School the couple settled here in 1969. He died in 2005.

    Mrs. Buckhout took great pride in her house, the iconic Hardscrabble farmhouse on the corner of Route 114 and Stephen Hand’s Path. While the couple was looking for a place to live in East Hampton, a frustrated real estate agent asked just what Mrs. Buckhout was looking for. “Something like that,” she said, pointing at what would become her home. The house happened to be on the market but was in such poor shape that the Buckhouts couldn’t get a mortgage from a bank. So the farmer acted as the mortgage holder and Mrs. Buckhout worked tirelessly to preserve and renovate the house.

    After giving birth to Christopher, the first of her sons, Mrs. Buckhout became a stay-at-home mom and remained so until her second son, Brian, entered kindergarten in 1969. She then worked as a part-time bookkeeper for Montauk Caribbean Airways, which operated out of East Hampton Airport.

    That job led her to meet the owners of WLNG, an AM station at the time. Over the next 30 years as treasurer, she helped expand the station. Mrs. Buckout, who had earned a master’s degree in business administration from Dowling College later in life, was WLNG’s president for the past five years.

    Mrs. Buckhout was also a president of the East Hampton Kiwanis Club and a recipient of the DeWitt Clinton Masonic Award for community service.

    The Buckhouts were surrogate parents to a number of young people who needed shelter and support, including Thomas Nesbitt of North Carolina and Anne Brigite Surin of Florida. As a result, besides having two biological grandchildren, she is also known as Grandma to seven other children.

    Christopher Buckhout and Brian Buckhout live in East Hampton. A sister predeceased her.

    A funeral service was held yesterday at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in East Hampton. Memorial donations have been suggested to Toys for Tots through the East Hampton Kiwanis Club, P.O. Box 1902, East Hampton 11937.