Linda W. Finney

Linda Washburne Finney of East Hampton died of liver cancer on July 23 at Southampton Hospital. She was 73 and had been ill for less than a year.

Ms. Finney had a passion for social justice, her son, Durham Finney of New York City, said, and she volunteered for several community projects on the East End, including the Box Art Auction that benefits East End Hospice. She also took part in charity functions that support children and women’s rights and was an active member of the Retreat.

Her son said that she had an “eccentric wit” and an “eye for fashion and design.” She had an impressive garden in the Northwest Woods, he said, in spite of interference from the neighborhood deer.

She was born on Sept. 13, 1943, in Washington, D.C., one of two children of Walter Menke and the former Ruth Washburne. A brother, Geoffrey von Menken of New York City, died before her. Ms. Finney grew up in Washington and also in New Jersey. She graduated from the Centenary College for Women in New Jersey and from American University’s School of International Service, in Washington.

In October 1978, the former Linda Washburne and Paul Finney married. They lived in New York, where Ms. Finney worked at The New York Times in public relations and later at Sotheby’s as a risk manager. They moved to East Hampton year round in the early 1990s, keeping their apartment in New York. Mr. Finney died in 2013.

Ms. Finney loved going to the beach and, at home, entertaining her friends with her husband and son, who said that his mother, “with her spunky attitude and sense of humor not to be matched . . . will be sorely missed and remembered fondly by those who were lucky enough to know her.”

Ms. Finney was cremated. Her son, who is planning a memorial for a later date, will disperse her ashes in the future. Memorial donations in her name have been suggested to the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation, 5526 West 13400 South, #510, Salt Lake City, Utah 84096, or online at cholangiocarcinoma.org.