Laura Mueller

Laura Mueller, who lived for many years in Montauk with her late husband, Dr. George Mueller, died on Aug. 20 while under hospice care in Greenwood, S.C., after having taken a fall. She was 88.

She had two earlier marriages, one to Joseph Kiefer and the other to Sol Tanne, before marrying Dr. Mueller in 1980 and moving to Montauk, where she worked at a variety of establishments, including the Montauk Yacht Club and, in East Hampton, Dean and DeLuca. Dr. Mueller died in 2003.

Mrs. Mueller was born on Dec. 19, 1929, in Brooklyn, one of two daughters of Herman and Bertha Eskin. Her sister, Rose Marion Smith of Greenwood, died before her. She grew up in Brooklyn and graduated from high school there, later earning a B.A. and two M.A.s in Manhattan and going on to work as a print model, a kindergarten teacher, and a cosmetician. She also worked for a time at the old New York Foundling Hospital.

She loved art, music, and literature, and “was knowledgeable about all three,” her family said. Her last wish, she told them, was to hear side eight of “Der Rosenkavalier,” because of its final trio of female voices. 

She had insatiable curiosity and passion for learning new things, they said, including, through the Great Courses college videos, anatomy and physiology. She owned hundreds of books, and several much-loved cats. A cartoonist friend dedicated this caption to her: “No Heaven will ever Heaven be unless my cats are there to welcome me.”

Mrs. Mueller was “dedicated to her wide circle of friends,” relatives said, many of whom she had known for more than 70 years. 

There was no funeral service, as per her wishes. Two nephews survive, as does Gail Buquicchio of Seattle, whom she called her “foster daughter.”

Memorial donations have been suggested for Planned Parenthood, P.O. Box 97166, Washington, D.C. 20077, the Humane Society of the United States, 1255 23rd Street N.W., Suite 450, Washington, D.C. 20037, or the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons, P.O. Box 901, Wainscott 11975.