Louise Meybert, 95

Louise Meybert, who signed up at Penn Station after World War II to buy land in Montauk with her sister Anne, died at home there on Oct. 26. She was 95 years old and had been in a wheelchair for about nine years after falling on ice in her uphill driveway.

Jacqueline Beh, formerly of Montauk and now living in Islip, said she had known Ms. Meybert for 30 years. She was “a zaftig, tall, blond, and indomitable woman,” Ms. Beh said. 

Ms. Meybert was born in Brooklyn on April 25, 1921, and spent summers as a child on Fire Island with her two sisters and their parents. None of the sisters ever married.

She and Anna trained at St. Vincent’s Hospital as nurses, but gave up their prospects to take care of their younger sister, Peggy, who was born with cerebral palsy. One would work by day and the other in the evening so that their sister would have around-the-clock care. “She told me stories about being 70 and carrying Peggy out into the yard,” said Ms. Beh. “Both sisters gave up their own lives to take care of her. No husbands, few parties, no travel, and lots of sacrifices.”

The lots near the Montauk School bought in the mid-’40s were sold in the mid-’70s, when they bought a piece of land high up, with a panoramic view of the ocean, Ms. Beh said. Until they built their house, which was designed to be completely wheelchair-accessible, they had lived in Bellmore; they moved to Montauk full time in 1986.

Even when she was wheelchair-bound after clawing her way up her steep driveway the day she fell, Ms. Meybert took a trip with a friend to Germany, to Lourdes, France, to Scotland, where she visited an old beau from World War II, and to Rome, where she was photographed with Pope Francis. The photo was printed in The Star in December 2013.

Both Ms. Meybert’s sisters died before her; there are no living relatives. Funeral services were held last Thursday at St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church, where Father Thomas Murray said Mass and gave a eulogy. Burial followed at Fort Hill Cemetery in Montauk. 

Memorial contributions in her name have been suggested to St. Therese’s parish outreach, P.O. Box 5027, Montauk 11954.