Demetra E. Mirras of John’s Drive-In

Demetra Mirras, who was known to believe “all good things happen around ice cream,” and who with her husband and son owned John’s Drive-In restaurant in Montauk from 1975 to 1983 and the Snowflake in East Hampton from 1985 to 1990, died of heart failure on Jan. 7, in Colorado Springs. She  was 91 and had lived there for the last three years with a daughter. 

  Ms. Mirras, Dee to friends, was raised in a family in the ice cream business and had owned ice cream shops and eateries on Long Island for about 20 years, including Pops in Island Park and Health Haven in Oceanside. 

Born to Elias and Stravoula Vassilakos in Chicago on Sept. 7, 1926, she graduated from Chicago’s Amundsen High School in 1944 and immediately began working at the Treasury Department before relocating with her mother and brothers to Baldwin in 1949 to work for the Bell Telephone Company. In 1950 she married James Mirras, who died in 2003.

According to Maura Mirras, the treasurer of the Montauk School District, her mother-in-law was full of boundless energy and always busy, whether running her businesses, volunteering at church or Sunday school, or being a member of women’s clubs. She baked Christmas cookies that were legendary and will be missed, her daughter-in-law said. 

She is survived by a sister, Bessie Soter of Massapequa, her children, Karen Puretz of Colorado Springs, Louis Mirras, and Michael Mirras of Montauk, as well as five grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, and several nieces and nephews.

The family will receive visitors tomorrow from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. at the Towers Funeral Home, 2681 Long Beach Road, Oceanside. A Mass will be celebrated on Saturday at 9 a.m. at St. Paul’s Greek Orthodox Cathedral, 110 Cathedral Avenue, Hempstead. Burial will follow at Pinelawn Memorial Park in Farmingdale.

The family has suggested memorial donations to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, 4550 Montgomery Avenue, Bethesda, Md. 20814 or online to the New Century Hospice/Grace Foundation.