Connections: In Memoriam

It is likely that Janis Hewitt will be remembered most for the humor she brought to the “Relay” spot, which is handed around among the staff

Oct. 20, 2016

Helen S. Rattray

William Wordsworth’s words came crashing into my head as I tried without luck to think of something cheerful to write about yesterday.

The unexpected, accidental death of Janis Hewitt, the East Hampton Star’s longtime Montauk correspondent, threw a wrench into all our proceedings.

The world is too much with us; late and soon

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;

Little we see in Nature that is ours;

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

Janis wrote for The Star for so many years that her work fills six thick manila folders in the backroom file cabinets, going back to at least 1996 and clipped from the newspaper by a part-time librarian before everything was digitized. She covered the gamut — news stories, features, and many, many personal columns under the “Relay” head. It was Janis’s 1996 front-page story that announced that Montauk residents had turned down a proposition to incorporate as a separate village by a 3-to-1 margin. A few years later, in 1999, she wrote about the “nightmare” of finding seasonal housing for the summer work force. The title was “Where to Put the Irish.”

But it is likely that she will be remembered most for the humor she brought to the “Relay” spot, which is handed around among the staff. My guess is that there are more of them from Janis than anyone else past or present who works here.

The first Janis Hewitt “Relay” I found as I made a quick survey was published on March 14, 1996. In it, she said she had decided to spend her first winter in Montauk in 1973, and she went on to describe a Santa parade during which it snowed.

The deadline for this column has long passed, but I can think of nothing — or no one — else. Today’s Star has a story about the accident that claimed her life, but the full obituary her life will have to wait for another day. Suffice it to say that if Janis had decided to write her own obituary it would be full of humor.

You can find a number of Janis’s columns by going to The Star website and searching for Janis Hewitt Relay.