Martha Wolford, 80

Martha J. Wolford of Springs was found dead on Aug. 29 at her home on Old Stone Highway. According to her only survivor, a niece who came to East Hampton with her husband this week to settle her affairs, she had been dead for some time, possibly weeks, when police went to the house. A gardener had reported not seeing her for a while.

Ms. Wolford’s longtime companion, Maurice Ackroyd, died on May 26. He was about 83; she was 80. After she fell in January and broke her wrist, said her niece, Pamela Blackwell of Yadkinville, N.C., he “did everything for her.” She said that after his death, her aunt “became so reclusive that the gardener was the only one she would initiate a call to.”

The couple had lived here year-round for about five years. Mr. Ackroyd was friendly with several members of the South Fork Country Club, where he played golf, but Ms. Wolford, though cordial in their company, apparently had few if any close friends.

She was devoted to her garden, according to her niece, and took up painting at some point. Several framed postcard-size sketches by her were found in the house, of scenes in England, where Mr. Ackroyd was born. The couple had spent summers there with a college friend of his from Cambridge University, and would go to Delray Beach, Fla., in the winter.

They met in Manhattan many years ago, Ms. Blackwell said. She said Ms. Wolford was a computer programmer at the United Nations and Mr. Ackroyd worked at I.B.M. She eventually gave up her own apartment and moved into his, on Bank Street in Greenwich Village, which they kept even after moving full time to Springs. So far as is known, they had not been back to the apartment for several years.

About six years ago Mr. Ackroyd had a stroke. Ms. Wolford took the subway from Greenwich Village every day for months to be with him at St. Luke’s Hospital, near Columbia University, and later at a rehabilitation facility. Finally they returned to Springs, where she cared for him by herself. Mr. Ackroyd recovered some of his strength, but Ms. Wolford lost much of hers during that ordeal and its aftermath, and developed diabetes, her niece said.

Martha Wolford was born on Jan. 29, 1934, in Tiffin, Ohio, to William H. Wolford and the former Maybel Ghastin. As a young woman she was said to have been very beautiful, and when she moved to New York, after graduating from Ohio State University, she worked first as a model. Ms. Blackwell said her mother, who died about 35 years ago, kept all the magazines that had photographs of her sister.

   Ms. Wolford was cremated, as had been Mr. Ackroyd, who left several nieces and nephews in Great Britain. Ms. Blackwell suggested that any donations in her aunt’s memory be directed to the Nature Conservancy, P.O. Box 5125, East Hampton 11937.