Linda Tuthill, 69

Linda Tuthill, who had worked as a nurse’s aide at Southampton Hospital, died on Dec. 15 at Peconic Bay Medical Centers in Riverhead. She was 69, and had been treated for lung cancer for about a year.

She was born in Queens to Gus Diamandis and the former Rosemarie Marozzi, but grew up on Squaw Road in East Hampton and attended the Springs School.

Ms. Tuthill was a nature lover, and had studied marine biology. She enjoyed the wildlife of both land and sea and painting pictures of them. She also enjoyed making jewelry and knitting scarves, giving the results of her crafts as gifts to friends and family.

Ms. Tuthill graduated from the Springs School and East Hampton High School. Her family said that despite being fair-skinned and having strawberry blonde hair, she took long walks along the beach, collecting seashells. Her love of the ocean took her to the Caribbean, where she learned to dive over coral reefs. In addition to working at Southampton Hospital she later worked at the Stop & Shop store in Riverhead.

She was married to Robert Tuthill and the couple moved to Hampton Bays in the 1970s. The marriage ended in divorce. Though she remained in Hampton Bays, she was a constant visitor to extended family in East Hampton.

She is survived by four sisters, three of whom make East Hampton their home: Joan Field, Carol Cerchiai, and Susan Flaherty. Her sister Diana Cattone lives in Lawrenceville, N.J. Her family said she had no children but that her many nieces and nephews loved her dearly and called her Aunt Minnie.

Ms. Field said Ms. Tuthill was her own son’s, Travis Field’s, godmother. An annual softball tournament in East Hampton was named in his honor after is death in an auto accident at the age of 20. Proceeds of the event, which Ms. Tuthill made a point of attending, went for scholarships for East Hampton High School students.

A funeral Mass was held for Ms. Tuthill at the Catholic Church of St. Rosalie in Hampton Bays on Dec. 17. She was buried in Southampton Cemetery.