Harriett Siegel

    Harriett Siegel, a longtime Springs resident, died on April 3 in Boca Raton, Fla., after a long illness. She was 70.

    Born in the Bronx to Milton and Hilda Siegel, who died before her, Ms. Siegel grew up there and graduated from Monroe High School and Syracuse University, where she majored in history. She began her own business in marketing research in Manhattan.

    Ms. Siegel’s friends remember a woman who traveled widely after college, venturing alone on long trips around Eastern Europe, India, and Southeast Asia. By the early 1970s, the travel bug had left her and, while living and working in Manhattan, she settled into a classic East End weekend routine, arriving on Friday night, socializing with friends at Main Beach in East Hampton on Saturday, and returning to the city on Sunday afternoon. It was at that beach in 1987 that she met Joe Henler, who was to be her companion for the rest of her life.

    Tired of renting and sharing houses, in 1977 Ms. Siegel bought a house in Springs. She moved there full time in 1998. Never one to sit around, she worked in the administrative offices at East Hampton and Pierson High Schools and volunteered and participated in the annual Ellen’s Run race.

    Although she loved the ocean, Ms. Siegel never learned to swim. Fifteen years ago she donated a bench to East Hampton Village; it is on the south side of Main Street facing north toward Newtown Lane. She often sat on her bench enjoying the view it afforded her of the two busiest village streets.

    Ms. Siegel enjoyed the East End better during warm weather and so, in 2003, when the idea of yet another cold winter was no longer appealing, she started renting and then bought a condo in Boca Raton, where she enjoyed gambling at casinos. She returned to her house in Springs every spring and worked at the real estate offices of Devlin McNiff and the Lamb Agency, and part time at Guild Hall for many summers.

    In 2008, she began spending more time in Florida, arriving in Springs closer to the first day of summer and leaving for Florida at the first sign of chilly weather.

    Ms. Siegel’s only survivor is her companion, Joe Henler of Springs. A funeral was held at Riverside Cemetery in Saddlebrook, N.J., last Thursday. A memorial is being planned for early this summer.

    Memorial donations have been suggested to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, attention Donor Services, P.O. Box 650309, Dallas, Tex. 75265-0309.    D.G.