Barbara E. Person, 80
Barbara Elizabeth Brewer Person of Bridgehampton, who played piano and organ for services and choirs at a number of churches on the South Fork and in California from 1949 to 2018, died on Aug. 31, at Park Avenue Extended Care in Long Beach. She was 80.
Ms. Person started piano lessons when she was 7 years old, her family said. She began accompanying the Bridgehampton First Baptist Church Sunday School Choir when she was about 12. Later on, she played for the junior and senior choirs.
When she was still young, the Rev. Ralph C. Spinner would pick her up in Bridgehampton to play at the precursor to Calvary Baptist Church in East Hampton, where he was minister. Ms. Person gave concerts and played at innumerable funerals and weddings.
After moving to Los Angeles in the 1960s with her husband, Louis C. Meacham, whom she married in 1956, she played for St. Mark’s A.M.E. Church and the Temple of God Pentecostal Church. She returned east in 1969 and took up again at the First Baptist Church in Bridgehampton, playing for the senior and gospel choruses.
Before a recent illness made it difficult to continue, she also played at services at Triune Baptist Church, which worships in Sag Harbor.
Barbara Elizabeth Brewer was born on Sept. 30, 1937, in Queens to Thomas Brewer and the former Fannie Square. As a child, she went to live with her maternal grandparents, Maynard and Gladys Square, in East Hampton, where she began school. She later attended the Bridgehampton School — where she played in the band.
She spent her freshman year in high school at the Nannie Burroughs School for Women and Girls in Washington, D.C. She returned to Bridgehampton, graduating there in 1956. “The happiest days of my life were in Bridgehampton School,” she would say.
While living in Los Angeles, she and Mr. Meacham had three children, Jacqueline, Lewis, and Penny.
After returning to New York, she married Willie D. Person in 1971. He died before her.
Continuing to play piano until this year, she accompanied the Bridgehampton Baptist Church Sunday School, Youth, Sun Beam, and Male Choirs, and assisted with the Harvest Gospel Choir.
As to life beyond the churches, Ms. Person worked for many years for Sears and briefly for TJ Maxx. Travel was a passion of hers, and she went on many trips and cruises with her husband, family, and friends. She was never without a video camera to record her travels and events she took part in, her family said.
Ms. Person and her longtime friend Gloria Harris attended many Gospel Workshops of America together.
Computer bowling was an interest as well. She and her online friends took part in Pogo leagues and tournaments.
She is survived by her children from her first marriage, Jacqueline M. Lattimer of Rockville Centre, Lewis H. Meacham II of Southampton, and Penny Meacham of Albany, a grandson, and three step-grandchildren.
Two of her cousins, Rosa Hanna Scott of East Hampton and James Nicholson of Chesapeake, Va., were like her sister and brother, her family said.
A service for Ms. Person was held at the Bridgehampton First Baptist Church on Sept. 6 with a eulogy by the Rev. Samuel R. Fulford Sr.
Burial was at Cedar Lawn Cemetery in East Hampton.