Jenna Vertullo, 42

“She was the strongest woman I ever met,” Jenna Vertullo’s mother, Gail Lia, said Tuesday of her daughter.

At 18 months of age, Ms. Vertullo, a lifelong East Hampton resident, was diagnosed with infant neuroblastoma, a cancer of the nerve cells that few survived at the time. “She defied every doctor’s prognosis with sheer strength of will and determination,” her sister Jessica Vertullo Maher wrote. “Her adult life was spent battling the repercussions of her illness in a body that refused to heal,” she wrote, but “her courage and tenacity kept her with us until the age of 42.”

Ms. Vertullo died on Friday at New York Hospital Queens. A service will be held on Saturday at 11 a.m. at the East Hampton Presbyterian Church, with a reception following in the session house.

Jenna Joy Vertullo was born in Southampton on Nov. 14, 1972. She graduated from East Hampton High School and attended college in Florida for a time before returning to East Hampton.

“She loved the beach, swimming, water, sunsets, sunrises, simple pleasures,” her mother said. She also enjoyed horseback riding, movies, and the arts. Because her health challenges limited what she could do, “she read everything she could,” said her father, Richard Lia. “She probably could have been a book reviewer,” he said.

Her parents “rarely left her side and cared for her day in and day out,” wrote Ms. Maher, who described herself as her sister’s best friend and confidante. Her sister’s husband, David Maher, was like a brother to Ms. Vertullo, her family said, and her dog, Maximus, “brought her peace and joy through her hardest times.”

“She taught those who knew her the meaning of forgiveness, compassion, and the strength to love,” wrote Ms. Maher, who lives in Southampton and Manhattan.

Also surviving Ms. Vertullo are another sister, Nancy Lia of Stuart, Fla., and a grandmother, Emily Barber of Eastport. Her parents live in East Hampton.

The family has suggested contributions to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis 38105, or online at stjude.org.