Doris Merritt, 80

Doris Merritt, a founding member and pillar of St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in Amagansett, died last Thursday at home in Amagansett at the age of 80.  She had been diagnosed in April with lung cancer.

As a child, Mrs. Merritt spent many summers with her family at Lazy Point in Amagansett, and on Oct. 12, 1958, after she and Samuel Merritt were married in Lynbrook, they held their wedding reception there, at Merrill’s Irish Mist.

A Long Islander all her life, Mrs. Merritt was born on Aug. 21, 1936, in  Oceanside, the daughter of John Imbusch and the former Dorothea Schlaefer. She grew up in Lynbrook, graduating from high school there in 1954 and from Hofstra University in 1956.

The Merritts moved to Amagansett in 1972, where, said her family, she enjoyed the water, scalloping with her husband, and picking beach plums to make jelly. Except for time off when her son was born and later when her daughter was in school, Mrs. Merritt had a 24-year career as a telephone company representative, first with AT&T in Long Beach, then in Southampton and Riverhead with Verizon, from which she retired in 1991.  She worked tirelessly for St. Michael’s after helping to found it in 2003. She also helped take the Census for several years.

Her husband died some years ago. Both of her children, Philip Merritt and Susan Dayton, live in Amagansett. She is also survived by two grandchildren and a sister, Joan Faas of Anchorage,  Alaska.

Visiting hours were held at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton on Friday, with burial the next day at Oak Grove Cemetery, Amagansett, next to her husband.  The family has suggested memorial donations to St. Michael’s Lutheran Church, 486 Montauk Highway, Amagansett 11930, or East End Hospice, P.O. Box 1048, Westhampton Beach 11978.