Mary H. Mulholland

Mary H. Mulholland had been in failing health for a while, but according to her daughter Brigitte M. Lenihan of Springs, that didn’t keep her from enjoying her 89th birthday party, which 50 people attended. She died at home in Springs almost three weeks later, on Sept. 26. Born on Sept. 6, 1927, in Brooklyn and brought up there, Ms. Mulholland was one of the three children of Edward Hellenbeck and the former Mary Moore. Her brother and sister died before her. She attended Catholic schools and then graduated from Queens College with a degree in nursing.

She worked in obstetrics and gynecology at the start of her nursing career and later in geriatric care at what was then the Todd Nursing Home in Southampton.

She was married to Thomas F. Lenihan, with whom she had four children. The couple, who eventually divorced, built a house in 1962 in what was then called Whispering Woods, now Clearwater Beach. The family moved there year round in 1971. Mr. Lenihan died in 1983.

She and Francis J. Mulholland of Amagansett were married when he was 82 and she was 65. She used his family name and they remained together until his death in 2005, just before his 95th birthday.

Ms. Mulholland, who enjoyed painting, had recently been using acrylics. She exhibited her landscapes, birds, and flowers, which won several awards locally and sold them at Guild Hall’s Clothesline Art Sale.

Her mother also enjoyed gardening, her house, and her family, Ms. Lenihan said. She loved the beach and continued swimming in the ocean until she was 78. She also wrote poetry, and The Star published many of her poems in the 1970s and 1980s.

In addition to Ms. Lenihan, two other children, Brian T. Lenihan of Willow Springs, Mo., and Mary Colleen Lenihan of Speonk, survive. Her firstborn child, Mary Ellen Lenihan, had died tragically. Four grandchildren also survive, as do many extended family members.

The family received friends at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton last Thursday, and a Mass of Christian burial was said at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton on Sept. 30.

Memorial donations have been suggested to the Springs Fire Department Ambulance Association, 179 Fort Pond Boulevard, East Hampton 11937, or East End Hospice, P.O. Box 1048, Westhampton Beach 11978-7048.