Marieanne Labbat, 97, of Chez Labbat
Marieanne Labbat, who with her husband, Eugene Labbat, owned and ran the East Hampton restaurant Chez Labbat for many years, died at home here on June 20, surrounded by her family and a caregiver, Paulett Waite. She was 97 and had been in robust health until the last few years.
Her daughter Michelle Shulman of Amagansett said that she had recently reminded her mother that she was born the year when women in this country got the right to vote. Her mother loved to cook, garden, and knit for her children and grandchildren and taught her caregivers to knit during the time she was taken care of at home. Ms. Shulman said her mother made the most delicious salad dressing that, while she claimed it was simple, no one in the family was able to duplicate. As for Mrs. Labbat’s green thumb, her family would joke that if she planted a pencil it would grow.
Marieanne Labbat was born on a farm in Brittany, France, on April 27, 1920, one of six children of the former Marie Ruper and Jean Marie LeCorre. At the age of 16 she went to Paris to be an au pair. Two years later, she was welcomed to New York City by two of her sisters. Her sister Isabelle had sponsored her, a requirement of immigration at the time.
Through word of mouth, her daughter said, her mother, not speaking any English, went to Sharon, Conn., as an au pair with a family who did not know French. On Sept. 21, when the parents had gone out for dinner, the 1938 Hurricane struck. “She did her best to comfort the boys,” her daughter said.
In May 1946 she married Eugene R. Labbat, who had come to this country with his family from the city of Brest in Brittany when he was 8. They had met at a French restaurant called LeMoal, which later seemed to have set their course in life. The couple lived for a while in New York, where Mr. Labbat worked at the Hotel Pierre, and in Maryland, and in Douglaston and Huntington before moving to East Hampton. They leased a Main Street restaurant called the Blue Goose in 1952. Following a few successful years, their daughter said, they bought it and renamed it Chez Labbat. Mrs. Labbat worked and sometimes cooked at the restaurant, which was a French-style bistro that served escargots and frog’s legs and was decorated with travel posters of France. A French restaurant here was pioneering for its time and became a hit. Friends helped the couple rebuild the restaurant after a devastating fire in 1962.
In addition to her daughter Michelle Shulman, Mrs. Labbat is survived by another daughter, Jeannette Schwenk of Atlanta, a son, Eugene J. Labbat of East Hampton, 5 grandchildren, and 13 great-grandchildren.
She was cremated and her ashes will be buried next to her husband’s at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church Cemetery in East Hampton. The family will hold a memorial in the fall. They have suggested donations to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Avenue, New York 10065, the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons, P.O. Box 901, Wainscott 11975, or to East End Hospice, P.O. Box 1048, Westhampton Beach 11978, saying they wanted to extend “special thanks to the men and women of hospice for their very caring and loving care.”